
Book, W 7G 



COPYRIGHT DEK)81T 




i-H ■::; o 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF 
THE UNITED STATES 
BY THE PRESIDENTS 

With Historical Reviews of 
Each Administration 



BY THE FOLLOWING LEADING STATESMEN OF THE TIME 


Henry Cabot Lodge, 

Senator from Massachusetts. 


John T. Morgan, 

Senator from Alabama. 


Shelby L. Cullom, 
Senator from Illinois. 


Chauncey M. Depew, 
Senator from New York. 


Champ Clark, 

Congressman from Missouri. 


John W. Daniel, 

Senator from Virginia. 


Major-Gen. Joseph Wheeler, 
Congressman from Alabama. 


John R. Proctor, 

President Civil Service Commission. 


• Joseph D. Cannon, 

Congressman from Illinois. 
General Horatio C. King, 

Ex-Adjutant-General of New York. 


William F. Aldrich, 

Congressman from Alabama. 

Ellis H. Roberts, 

Treasurer of the United States. 


John B. Henderson, 

Ex-Senator from Missouri. 


Perry S. Heath, 

First Assistant Postmaster-General. 


Charles Dick, 

Congressman from Ohio. 
Marion Butler, 

Senator from North Carolina. 


Horace Taylor, 

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. 
Henry Clay Evans, 

Commissioner of Pensions. 


Frank A. Vanderlip, 

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. 
Colonel A. K. McClure, 

Editor of the Philadelphia Times. 


Holmes Conrad, 

Ex-Solicitor General of United States. 
Binger Hermann, 

Commissioner of General Land Office. 


James D. Richardson, 

Congressman from Tennessee. 


Joseph B. Foraker, 
Senator from Ohio. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH NEARLY FOUR HUNDRED AUTOGRAPH 
LETTERS, POLITICAL CARTOONS, AND ENGRAVINGS OF THE 
PRESIDENTS, THEIR HOMES AND MONUMENTS, WITH MANY 
HALF-TONE PORTRAITS OF STATESMEN AND PROMINENT 
c^Ooc^Qo^a^/i) POLITICAL LEADERS OF TO-DAY ^^e-c^Qoc^Oo 

The Federal Book Concern 

i8q9 



'^\ 



-^x.7<-, COPIES Ht:ct--.fv t:.^ 

J. j Ma, , of CangroisH 
OffUa of U'<u 

FEB 1 - 1900 

Register of Gof.yplch^** 



5/949 

Copyright, 1899, 
By THE FEDERAL ROOK. CONCERN. 



SECOND COPY, 



4>*fe (otg 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 
Old Capitol Prison at Washington — It was Occupied as the 
Capitol after the Capture of Washington by the British, 
August 24, 1814, When the Former Capitol was Destroyed 

(Frontispiece) 
George Washington, First President of the United States, . . 15 
Mount Vernon, Va. — Home of George Washington, . . . .16 

Home of Washington's Parents on the Potomac, 17 

Washington's Birthplace at Bridge's Creek, on the Potomac, 

Virginia, 20 

Washington's First Thanksgiving Proclamation, . . . ■ 33, 34 
The White House, Residence of the Presidents at Washington, 

D. C, 51 

The United States Capitol at Washington, D. C, 52 

House at Arlington, District of Columbia — It was Owned by 
George Washington and now the Property of the Government, 57 

Home of John Adams, at Quincy, Massachusetts, 58 

John Adams, Second President of the United States 69 

Coinage Proclamation by President John Adams, 70 

Monticello, Virginia, Home of Thom/^s Jefferson, . . . .78 
Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States, . . -79 
Liberty Hall, Philadelphia, Where Declaration of Independence 

was Signed, 80 

First and Last Pages of Jefferson's Neutrality Proclamation, 81, 82 
Fac-simile of Parts of Jefferson's Original Draft of the Declara- 
tion OF Independence, 9i'~94 

Home of James Madison, at Montpelier, Virginia, .... 108 
James Madison, Fourth President of the United States, . . . iii 
President Madison's Declaration of War Against Great Britain 

Which Brought on the " War of 1812," 112 

Home of James Monroe, Loudon County, Virginia 132 

James Monroe, Fifth President of the United States . . . .137 



2 Illustrations. 

Page. 
The Monroe Doctrine — Page from President Monroe's Seventh 

Annual Message of December 2, 1823 138 

Letter of President Monroe to a Friend, Explaining National 

Policy i55, 156 

Birthplace of John Quincy Adams, 160 

John Quincy Adams, Sixth President of the United States, . . 165 

United States Mint, at Washington, D. C, 166 

First and Last Pages of President J. Q. Adams' Proclamation on 

Tonnage Duties, i75. 176 

The "Hermitage," near Nashville, Tennessee — Andrew Jackson's 

Home, 183 

Andrew Jackson, Seventh President of the United States, . . 185 
Cartoon on Andrew Jackson's Campaign for His Second Term, 
Picturing His Power of Controlling Men Against Their Own 

Will, 186 

Cartoon on Andrew Jackson's Second Term Campaign, Showing How 
He Pleased the Masses by Overthrowing the National Bank 

Monopoly, 186 

Proclamation by President Andrew Jackson About the Public 

Lands of Alabama, 203 

President Jackson's Signature on a State Document, .... 204 
Home of Martin Van Buren, at Kinderhook, New York, . . .211 
Martin Van Buren, Eighth President of the United States, . . 213 
Agitation Against Dueling in Washington in Martin Van Buren's 

Administration, 214 

Cartoon on Van Buren's Policy of Payments in Coin, Which Par- 
tisans AT THAT Time Claimed Throttled " The Poor Man," . . 214 
President Van Buren's Proclamation Revoking Tonnage Duties 

ON Vessels of Greece, 223, 224 

William Henry Harrison's Home at North Bend, Indiana, . . 232 
W. H. Harrison, Ninth President of the United States, . . . 233 
State, War and Navy Department Buildings at Washington, D. C, . 234 
Cartoon Ridiculing the Millerites' Millennium Prophecy of 1843, . 243 
Cartoon Against the National Bank System, Which Andrew Jack- 
son Overthrew 243 

Financial Crisis of Van Buren's Administration. Following Re- 
tiring OF Inflated Paper Currency and Resumption of Specie 

Payments 244 

Ridicule of Jenny Lind's Popularity in 1850 244 



Illustrations. 3 

Page. 

Home of John Tyler, at Sherwood Forest, Greenway, Virginia, . 246 
John Tyler, Tenth President of the United States, .... 253 
Page of Webster-Ashburton Treaty Ratified in John Tyler's 

Administration, 263 

President Tyler's Signature on the Ratification of the Webster- 
Ashburton Treaty, 264 

The Old Capitol of the Confederacy, at Richmond, Va., . . . 281 

Cartoon on " Troubled Treasures," 282 

Cartoon on " The Times," 282 

Home of James K. Polk, at Nashville, Tennessee 285 

James K. Polk, Eleventh President of the United States, . . 299 
Declaration of War Against Mexico by President Polk, . . . 300 
Zachary Taylor, Twelfth President of the United States, . . 309 
Home of Zachary Taylor, at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, . . .311 
Signature of President Taylor on a State Document, . . . 319 
Final Page of Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, Ratified in President 

Taylor's Administration, 320 

Old Home of Millard Fillmore, at Buffalo, New York, . . . 327 
Millard Fillmore, Thirteenth President of the United States, . 329 
Tariff Agitation of 1846, With Caricatures of Polk, Buchanan, 
Calhoun and Other Political Leaders of the Period, . . 330 

Cartoon on Buchanan's Currency Policy, 330 

President Fillmore's Fugitive Slave Proclamation, .... 339 
Last Page of Fillmore's Fugitive Slave Proclamation, . . . 340 
Home of Franklin Pierce, at Concord, New Hampshire, . . . 347 
Franklin Pierce, Fourteenth President of the United States, . 357 
Temperance Craze of 1854, During Franklin Pierce's Administration, 358 

Temperance Agitation of Franklin Pierce's Term 358 

First Page of President Pierce's Proclamation Against Filibuster- 
ing Expeditions to Cuba, 367 

Last Page of Proclamation Against Filibustering by President 

Pierce, 368 

Home of James Buchanan, at Wheatland, Pennsylvania, . . . 369 
James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States, . . 375 

Confederate Monument at Richmond, Va., 376 

South Carolina's Ordinance to Secede from the Union December 

20, i860. During Buchanan's Administration 385 

President Buchanan's Note to Senate, Relating to Utah Massacres, 386 



4 Illustrations. 

Page. 

Home of Abraham Lincoln, at Springfield, Illinois, . . . ,391 
Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States, . . 395 
Lincoln's Exhortation to the People of the United States Not to 

Plunge into Civil War, 396 

First and Last Pages of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, . 405 
Page from Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, . . . .406 
Last Page of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, .... 407 
Lincoln's Signature to Emancipation Proclamation, .... 408 
President Lincoln's Proclamation Admitting West Virginia into the 

Union, 417 

President Lincoln's Signature to Proclamation Admitting West 

Virginia into the Union, 418 

House in Washington Where Lincoln Died, 427 

Cartoon of the " New Woman " of Lincoln's Administration, . . 428 
Beginning of Women's Rights Agitation in Lincoln's Administra- 
tion, .' . . . . 428 

Birthplace of Andrew Johnson, at Raleigh, North Carolina, . . 434 
Andrew Johnson, Seventeenth President of the United States, . 437 
Madison jNIansion — McClelland's Headquarters at Washington 

IN 1861, 438 

Thanksgiving Proclamation of President Johnson, .... 447 
Signature of President Johnson to Thanksgiving Proclamation, . 448 
U. S. Grant, Eighteenth President of the United States, . . . 457 
President Grant's Proclamation Calling for an Extra Session of 

the Senate, 458 

Home of U. S. Grant, at Galena, Illinois, 459 

President Grant's Centennial Proclamation, 467 

President Grant's Signature to Centennial Proclamation, . . 468 
Mt. McGregor Cottage, at Saratoga, New York, Where General 

U. S. Grant Died, 477 

General Grant's Tomb on Morningside Heights, New York City, . 478 
" Hardscrabble," General Grant's Farm, in St. Louis County, 

Missouri, 481 

Home of President Hayes, at Fremont, Ohio 482 

R. B. Hayes, Nineteenth President of the United States. . . . 487 
Bartholdi Fountain, Washington, D. C, With the Capitol in the 

Distance, . . • 488 

First Page of President Hayes' Proclamation to Suppress Railroad 

Strike in Maryland, ^ . 497 



Illustrations. 5 

Page. 

Last Page and Signature of President Hayes' Proclamation to 

Suppress Maryland Railroad Strike, 49^ 

Home of James A. Garfield, at Hiram, Ohio 504 

James A. Garfield, Twentieth President of the United States, . 507 
A Note to the Secretary of State by President Garfield, . . 508 
Home of Chester A. Arthur, Lexington Avenue, New York City, . 518 
Chester A. Arthur, Twenty-first President of the United States, . 525 
President Arthur's Announcement of President Garfield's Death, 527 
President Arthur's Signature to Official Announcement of Presi- 
dent Garfield's Death, 528 

Birthplace of Grover Cleveland, at Caldwell, New Jersey, . . 536 
Grover Cleveland, Twenty-second and Twenty-fourth President 

of the United States, 545 

President Cleveland's Proclamation Admitting the Territory of 

Washington as a State, 546 

President Cleveland's Proclamation on Utah's Admission to the 

Union, 555 

President Cleveland's Signature to a State Document, . . . 556 

Home of Jefferson Davis, at Richmond, Va 573 

United States Patent Office, at Washington, D. C, . . . . 574 
Home of ex-President Benjamin Harrison, at Indianapolis, Indiana, 580 
Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United States, 591 
Signature of President Harrison to a State Document, . . . 592 
William McKinley, Twenty-fifth President of the United States, 609 

President McKinley's Home, at Canton, Ohio, 610 

President McKinley's Declaration ot War Against Spain, ." . 627 
United States Treasury Building, at Washington, D. C, . . . 628 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 
GEORGE WASHINGTON the Greatest Man in History, by Senator Henry 
Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts; Washington's own History of his two Admin- 
istrations, 1789-1797; His Farewell Address; Life of Washington Page 17 

CHAPTER IL 
JOHN ADAMS as Financier and Statesman, by Ellis H. Roberts, Treasurer 
of the United States; Administration of 1797-1801, by President Adams; Suspen- 
sion of Diplomatic Relations with France; First Coinage Law; Insurrection 
in Pennsylvania; Removal of National Capital from Philadelphia to Washing- 
ton ; Life of John Adams Page 58 

CHAPTER III. 
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S Place in History, by Senator John W. Daniel, of 
Virginia; Administration of 1801-1809, by President Jefiferson; War with Tripoli; 
Purchase of Louisiana Territory from France; Spain's Depredations on United 
States Commerce; Lewis and Clark's Exploration of the Northwest; Treason 
of Aaron Burr; Life of Thomas Jefiferson Page 78 

CHAPTER IV. 
JAMES MADISON as Father of the Constitution, by James D. Richardson, 
Congressman from Tennessee; Administration of 1809-1817, by President 
Madison; War against Great Britain; Captain Decatur and Captain Jones' 
Naval Victories; Battle of Lake Erie; Frigate "Constitution's" Destruction 
of British Frigate "Java;" Victories on Land; Treaty of Peace with Great 
Britain; End of War with Algiers; Life of James Madison Page 108 

CHAPTER V. 
MONROE'S Great National Policy, by John R. Proctor, President of the 
United States Civil Service Commission; Administration of 1817-1825, by Presi- 
dent Monroe; Reduction of Naval Force on the Great Lakes; Military Force 
of the United States; General Jackson's Seizure of Florida from Spain; Sup- 
pression of Slave Trade on the High Seas; The " Monroe Doctrine; " Life 
of James Monroe Page 132 



8 Contents. 

CHAPTER VI. 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS as Man, Scholar, Diplomat and Statesman, by 
Binger Hermann, Commissioner of the General Land Office; Administration of 
1825-1829, by President John Quincy Adams; Depredations on our Commerce 
of Grecian Pirates; Population of the United States in 1825; War between 
Russia and Turkey; Arbitration of Northeastern Boundary of United States; 
Life of John Quincy Adams Page 160 

CHAPTER Vn. 
ANDREW JACKSON as Soldier and Statesman, by Major-General Joseph 
Wheeler; Administration of 1829-1837, by President Jackson; His Tariff Policy; 
Abuses of the Public Treasury; Establishment of Indian Territory; Reorganiza- 
tion of Army and Navy; Overthrow of the Bank of the United States; Recog- 
nition of Republic of Texas; Rebellion of South Carolina; Life of Andrew 
Jackson Page 183 

CHAPTER VIII. 
MARTIN VAN BUREN, the First Politician President, by F. A. Vanderlip, 
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury; Administration of 1837-1841, by President 
Van Buren; His Financial Policy; Dispute with Russia over the Northwest 
Boundary; Fixing the Northern Boundary; Improved Financial Conditions; 
Life of Martin Van Buren Page 21 1 

CHAPTER IX. 
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON the People's Idol, by Perry Sanford 
Heath, First Assistant Postmaster-General; Administration of 1841, by Presi- 
dent Harrison; His Inaugural Address; His Sudden Death; Announcement to 
the People by Daniel Webster; Life of William Henry Harrison Page 232 

CHAPTER X. 
JOHN TYLER'S Greatness, by Ex-Senator J. B. Henderson, of j\lis- 
souri; Administration of 1841-1845, by President Tyler; Treaty with Great 
Britain over Northern Boundary; Right of Search on the High Seas; Con- 
dition of the Treasury; Independence of Hawaiian Islands from European 
Control; Commerce with China; Hostile Attitude of Mexico; Application for 
Annexation of Texas; Life of John Tyler Page 246 

CHAPTER XI. 
JAMES K. POLK'S Administration, by Marion Butler, Senator from 
North Carolina; Administration of 1845-1849, by President Polk; Admis- 
sion of Texas into the Union; War with Mexico; Victories of United States 



Contents. 9 

Army under General Taylor; Acquisition of New Mexico and California from 
Mexico; Organizing Territorial Governments; Settlement with Great Britain of 
the Northwestern Boundary; Discovery of Gold in California; Missouri Com- 
promise; Life of James K. Polk Page 285 

CHAPTER XII. 
ZACHARY TAYLOR as Soldier and President, by Henry Clay Evans, 
Pension Commissioner; Administration of 1849-1850, by President Taylor; Nica- 
ragua Canal Advocated; Civil Government for California; Recomends Estab- 
lishment of Department of Agriculture; Pacific Coast Survey; Clayton-Bulwer 
Treaty for Building Nicaragua Canal; Life of Zachary Taylor Page 311 

CHAPTER XIII. 

MILLARD FILLMORE'S Career, by W. F. Aldrich, Congressman from 

Alabama; Administration of 1850^1853, by President Fillmore; Ratification of 

the Nicaragua Canal Treaty; Hawaiian Treaty; Protective Tariff Policy; New 

Naval Code; Expedition against Cuba; Life of Millard Fillmore Page ^-7 

CHAPTER XIV. 
FRANKLIN PIERCE, the Great Expansionist, by John T. Morgan, Sen- 
ator from Alabama; Administration of 1853-1857, by President Pierce; Adher- 
ence to the Constitution; Territorial Expansion; First Commercial Treaty 
with Japan; Settlement of the Mexican Boundary; Adjustment of Fishery 
Question with Great Britain; Repeal of the Missouri Compromise; Treaty of 
Reciprocity with British North American Provinces; Organization of the 
Territories of Kansas and Nebraska; Reorganization of Consular and Diplo- 
matic Service; Organization of the Court of Claims; Retired List lor the Navy; 
Veto Indigent Insane Bill; Life of Franklin Pierce Page 347 

CHAPTER XV. 
JAMES BUCHANAN'S Policy, by General Horatio A. King, LL. D., of 
New York; Administration of 1857-1861, by President Buchanan; Mormon 
Rebellion in Utah; Admission of Minnesota; Negotiations to Acquire Island 
of Cuba; Slavery War in Kansas; Topeka Government; Le Compton Consti- 
tution; Union Threatened; Secession of the Southern States; Seizure of United 
States Forts and Arsenals; Plan to Capture the Capital; Life of James 
Buchanan Page 369 

CHAPTER XVL 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S Greatness, by Colonel A. K. McCIure, Editor 
"The Philadelphia Times;" Administration of 1861-1865, by President Lin- 



lo Contents. 

coin; Supreme Desire for Peace; Union of States Perpetual; Proclamation 
Calling Out Militia; Firing on Fort Sumter; Establishing Blockade of South- 
ern Ports; Maryland Declares for the Union; Bringing Missouri and Kentucky 
into Line; Emancipation Proclamation, January i, 1863; Diplomatic Relations 
with England and France; Organization of Colored Troops into War Service; 
Capture of Vessels and Prizes; Naval Force of the United States; Admission 
of Nevada; Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant Assigned to the Command 
of the -Army; Establishment of Telegraph Lines between the Atlantic and 
Pacinc States; Sherman's March to the Sea; Lee's Surrender; Peace; National 
Prosperity; Second Inauguration; Last Words to His Countrymen; Assassina- 
tion ; Life of Abraham Lincoln Page 391 

CHAPTER XVIL 
ANDREW JOHNSON as a Patriot, by Champ Clark, Congressman from 
Missouri; Administration of 1865-1869, by President Johnson; Maintenance 
of the Union; Constitutional Rights; Policy of Reconciliation; Removal of 
the Blockade; Custom-Houses Re-established; Internal Revenue Laws Put 
in Force; Negotiations for the Islands of St. Thomas and St. John; Retire- 
ment of P^per Currency and Resumption of Specie Advocated; Life of An- 
drew Johnson Page 434 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
I^LYSSES S. grant' as Soldier and Statesman, by Shelby M. Cullom, 
Senator from Illinois; Administration of 1869-1877; Quaker Peace Commis- 
sion; Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution; Panama Canal Treaty; Rati- 
fication Urged of the Treaty for Annexation of San Domingo; Reform of 
the Civil Service; Southern States Admitted to Representation; Settlement 
of " Virginius " Claims; Admission of Colorado; Resumption of Specie; Set- 
tlement of "Alabama Claims;" Life of Ulysses S. Grant Page 459 

CHAPTER XIX. 
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES as a Citizen and Statesman, by Joseph B. 
Foraker, Senator from Ohio; Administration of 1877-1881, by President Hayes; 
Policy of Pacification; No North, No South, but a United Country: Strength- 
ening the Public Credit; Veto Bland-Allison Bill; Veto Act to Prohibit Mili- 
tary Interference at Elections; Successful Execution of the Resumption Act; 
Territorial Government for Alaska; Territorial Government for Utah; Indian 
Policy; Life of Rutherford B. Hayes Page 482 

CHAPTER XX. 
JAMES A. GARFIl'.LD, Great in Life and Death, by Charles Dick, Con- 
gressman from Ohio; Administration of 1S81, by James A. Garfield; Close 



Contents. ii 

of First Century of Growth; Nation Developing Great Possibilities; Elevation 
of Negro to Citizenship; Question of Equal Suffrage; Interests of Agriculture; 
Refunding of the National Debt; Assassination of Garfield; Life of James A. 
Garfield Page 504 

CHAPTER XXI. 
CHESTER A. ARTHUR'S Administration, by Chauncey M. Depew, Sen- 
ator from New York; Administration of 1881-1885, by President Arthur; Pro- 
tection of Law for Indians; Land Allotted Them in Severalty; Veto of Chinese 
Bill; Reconstruction of Navy; Improvement of Civil Service; Nicaragua 
Canal Treaty; General Grant Placed on the Retired List of the Army; 
Currency and Finance; Centennial Celebration at Yorktown; Life of Chester A. 
Arthur Page 518 

CHAPTER XXII. 
GROVER CLEVELAND'S Administration, by Holmes Conrad, ex-Attor- 
ney-General of the United States; Administration of 1885-1889, by President 
Cleveland; Action against Union Pacific Railroad; Civil Service Policy; Re- 
organizing Army and Navy; Veto of Nicaraguan Canal Bill; Chinese Ques- 
tion; Management of the Indians; Tariff Message; Treaty of Commerce with 
Peru; Samoan Message; Second Administration, 1893-1897; International Con- 
ference; Financial Panic; Anti-Polygamy Prosecution; Admission of Utah; 
Venezuela Controversy; Enforcement of Monroe Doctrine; Life of Grover 
Cleveland Page 536 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
BENJAMIN HARRISON as a Statesman, by Horace Taylor, Assistant 
Secretary of the Treasury; Administration of 1889-1893, by President Harri- 
son; International Maritime Conference; Financial Policy; Revision of the 
Tariff; Improvements in Alaska; Admission of South Dakota, North Dakota, 
Montana, and Washington; Creation of the Department of Agriculture; Re- 
organization of Weather Bureau and Signal Corps; Admission of Wyoming 
and Idaho; World's Columbian Exposition; Attack of the U. S. S. " Baltimore " 
at Valparaiso; Four Hundredth Anniversary of the Discovery of America; 
Great Prosperity of the Country; Successful Naval Policy; Introduction of 
Torpedoes; Recommendation for Using Smokeless Powder; Development of 
Naval Militia; Treaty for Annexation of Hawaiian Islands; Amnesty to Mor- 
mons; Life of Benjamin Harrison Page 580 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
WILLIAM McKINLEY'S Administration, by Joseph G. Cannon, Con- 
gressman from Illinois; Administration Beginning 1897. by President ]\IcKin- 



12 Contents. 

ley; Revision of Financial System; Special Session for Tariff Legislation; 
Treaty for Annexing the Hawaiian Islands; Relief for Destitute Americans 
in Cuba; Destruction of the "Maine;" Naval Court of Inquiry Organized; 
Finding of Naval Court; Views of this Government Communicated to Spain; 
Declaration of Hostilities against Spain; Withdrawal of Spanish Minister; 
Commodore George Dewey Ordered to the Philippine Islands; Dewey's Vic- 
tory at Manila; Review of Cuban Struggle; Red Cross in Cuba; American 
Minister Quits Spain; Call for Volunteers; Naval Preparations; Planting of 
Submarine Mines; The Signal Corps Organized; National Defense Fund Ex- 
pended; The First Encounter of the War; Reinforcements Hurried to Manila; 
Arrival of the " Oregon" and " Marietta;" Commodore Schley's Squadron Bom- 
bardment of the Forts Guarding Santiago Harbor; Sinking of the " Merrimac; " 
Cutting of the Cuban Cable; Battles of El Caney and San Juan; Destruction 
of Admiral Cervera's Fleet; Fall of Santiago; General Miles at Porto Rico; 
■ Battle at Manila; Peace Commission at Paris; Signing of the Peace Protocol; 
Ratification of Peace Treaty; Life of William McKinley Page 604 



INTRODUCTION. 



THIS is the first time that a complete, popular history of the 
United States has appeared, written by the men who made 
our history. 

The impression which first strikes a person, when taking up the 
book, is the distinctness and forcibleness with which events of the 
past are stated. 

Incidents reaching back into the times of Washington, Adams, 
Jefiferson, Monroe and Andrew Jackson are flashed as briUiantly 
before the reader as if they were current events. 

We have been accustomed to think of those old heroes as if they 
were men of action only. But this is certainly a mistake. They 
were all men who spoke and wrote with vigor. They penned their 
messages in the heat and ardor of war, political strife and social con- 
vulsions. Things which have seemed dead issues and dry history in 
the hands of the professional historian are here made as interesting 
as topics of our own times. 

The effect upon first picking up the book and seeing such headings 
as "Administration of 1789-1797," written "By George Washing- 
ton," " Administration of 1829-1837," written " By Andrew Jackson," 
is almost startling. It is a revelation. It seems as if those old 
statesmen had come back upon the arena of public affairs. The 
magnetic influence of their own words makes them seem like the 
voices of living men. We have been accustomed to receive history 
second hand, but here it is given first hand. 

There can be no more vivid and instructive form of history than 
this. Tlie illustrations tend to impress these features even more 



14 History of the United States. 

strongly. The handwriting of Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Lin- 
coln and the other Presidents tend to bring the reader into an inti- 
mate acquaintance with them, just as a letter from a friend appeals 
to a person more strongly than the printed columns of newspapers. 

These autographs and documents from the leading libraries and 
private collections of the country are almost priceless. 

The birthplaces, homes, monuments, and places and scenes in which 
these heroes of our history moved, complete the impressions formed 
by their own words and the sight of their own writings. 

It is a work unique among histories. The reviews of each Presi- 
dent's administration by some prominent, living stateman bring out 
plainly the leading acts and facts for which each is most noted and 
remembered. It mirrors all our past in the critical glass of the 
present day. It brings history up to date in an entirely new way. 
As the public men wlio have reviewed the various Presidents are 
fiom all parts of the cotmtry, it gives a local and universal interest 
to the book. 

Altogether, this is an educational work unique among histories, 
and would seem to mark a new epoch in history-making. It ought to 
find its way into the hands and homes of American citizens everywhere. 

THE PUBLISHERS. 




FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 




HOME OF WASHINGTON'S PARENTS, ON THE POTOMAC. 



CHAPTER I. 



WASHINGTON. THE GREATEST MAN IN THE WORLD'S HISTORY. 



By Henry Cabot Lodge. Senator from Massachusetts. 



"V T O man in history seems to have risen to such a height in the estimation 
-^ ^ of the people that criticism about him has been silenced as has 
George Washington. There is a great meaning in this if it can be rightly stated. 
It can not be attributed to popular superstition made of hero worship, which a 
closer study of the man and his acts dispels. Nothing is nearer the truth than 
public opinion, and it is useless to belittle this element in history. The world's 
opinion of a man becomes in the course of time the nearest we can attain to 
the true judgment. To be sure, different men have different ideals. Don 
Quixote may mean nothing to one man, and Shakespeare may have no charm 
for another; but the fault lies in the reader of those masters. No intelligent 
man doubts the greatness of either Shakespeare or Cervantes; they have stood 
the test of time — generations of men have called them great, and there is 
no appeal from this verdict. We may have called certain poetry hackneyed 



i8 History of the United States. 

and simple lyrics but cliildhood rhymes, but these very things are on the 
whole the best poetry. What crowds of admiring gazers for centuries have 
pronounced the best pictures and statues must be accepted as such. This is 
why Washington may be called supremely great, when a century after his 
death the people's verdict agrees to call him great. 

The verdict must be accepted. Historians may have whitened or blackened 
and critics may have weighed and dissected him, but they have not changed 
the popular judgment. The solitary fact still stands and his foremost place 
in history is established. 

In Washington's case, people seemed to have agreed at last that his great- 
ness was of such a character that no one could fail to respect him. Around 
other great leaders discussions have arisen, and they have had their partisans 
after death as they had them while living. Even Washington had enemies 
who assailed him while alive, but in death he stood alone, above strife and 
beyond malice. 

In America there can be no further dispute as to his work. Even English- 
men, who are the most unsparing critics of us, have done homage to Wash- 
ington, from the time of Byron and Fox to the present day. France has 
always revered his name. In distant lands, people who have hardly heard 
of the United States know the name of Washington. Nothing could better 
show the regard of the world for this great giver of liberty to the people than 
the way in which contributions came from all nations to his monument at 
Washington. There are stones from Greece, fragments of the Parthenon. 
There are stones from Brazil, Turkey, Japan, Switzerland, Siam and India. 
In sending her tribute, China said: " In devising plans, Washington was 
more decided than Ching Shing or Woo Kwang; in winning a country, he 
was braver than Tsau Tsau or Ling Pi. Wielding his four-footed falchion, 
he extended the frontiers and refused to accept the Royal Dignity. The 
sentiments of the Three Dynasties have reappeared in him. Can any man 
of ancient or modern times fail to pronounce Washington peerless?" These 
comparisons, which are so strange to our ears and which sound stranger still 
when used in comparison with Washington, show that his name has reached 
farther than we can comprehend. 

He has become a type that has impressed itself deep on the mind and 
imagination of all mankind. Whether this image in all its details be true 
or false is of little consequence; the fact remains. He towers up from the 
dust of history as a Grecian statue stands, pure and serene, after being dug 
up from the earth in which it has lain for centuries. We are aware of his 
deeds, but the question is, what was it in the man himself that has given him 
such a position in the respect, the love and the imagination of men the whole 
world over. 



George Washington. 19 

The historians and the antiquarians, as well as the critics, seem to have 
exhausted every resource. They have held up to us the most minute details, 
and still people are anxious to hear more of Washington's character. It is 
a significant fact that every house where he ever lived has been photographed, 
painted and drawn. Portraits, statues and medals of the man have been 
catalogued as classics. Even his private affairs, his servants, his clothes, his 
horses, his arms, have been brought beneath the microscope of history. 
Biographies have been written and rewritten many times. From every lurk- 
ing place his letters have been drawn out and made public in volumes and 
in detachments. Over and over again his battles have been fought and studied 
by military critics, while his State papers have received an almost verbal 
examination. Yet, in spite of his great name and the tireless work of biogra- 
phers and antiquarians, Washington is still not understood. He has been 
disguised more or less both by critics and friends, and misrepresented by 
eulogies and theories of admirers. What still remains to be done is to try 
to gather from this mass of material at the end of the nineteenth century 
enough to make a new image of the man himself in the various circumstances 
of his life, and to try and see what he actually was; what his motives were at 
all times. This will show 'what he means to us and to the whole world at 
this time. 

His own words in his messages and documents of State are the best starting 
point for the people of the present time to form their own picture of him. 
The image they have now in their own minds of Washington they will then 
see is largely mythical, for we have not outgrown the primitive, mythical 
idea of things, even at the end of the nineteenth century. Notwithstanding its 
vaunted intelligence, myths still remain and grow as they did in the infancy 
of the race. It is the oldest sentiment of humanity, and is far more lasting 
than records of parchments and monuments. It is what led men in the 
morning of history to adore their ancestors and it still endures. As centuries 
have passed this sentiment has Ipst much of its religious flavor and has 
become more limited, but it has not been extinguished. Whenever a man 
in modern times rises above the ordinary bounds of greatness, the same 
feeling which made our ancestors humble themselves at the altars of their 
forefathers and chiefs makes us envelop our modern heroes with a mythical 
character, and we picture him in our minds as a man to whom in past years 
i'hrines would have been builded and sacrifices made. 

So, we have at the present time in our minds a great, solemn and impressive 
idea of Washington. In this character he seems a man of towering intellect, 
great moral force, the symbol of success, the idol of fortune, and standing 
apart from the rest of his fellow countrymen and humanity. This picture of 



20 



History of the United States. 



lonely greatness comes up in our mind with all the royal splendor of the 
Lavain Augustus, and with as much glow and life as that unparalleled statue. 
This great and serious idea contains a deal of truth, but it is not wholly true. 
It is the superstition of love and adoration rising from the hereditary grati- 
tude of the people of America to one of the founders of our nation. 

A famous historical scholar and antiquarian said, in an essay long ago, ihe 
" traditional Washington must give place to the new Washington.'" This is 
true in one sense. A new idea of Washington comes up in the mind of each 
generation, as it learns the story of the father of this country; but, in anotlicr 
sense, the idea of a new Washington is wrong. He can not be discovered 
anew, because there never was but one Washington. 





WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE AT BRIDGE'S CREEK, ON THE POTOMAC, VIRGINIA. 



George Washington. 21 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1789-1797. 



By George Washington. 



AMONG the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have 
filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notifi- 
cation of first election was transmitted and received on the 
14th day of the present month (April, 1789). On the one hand, I 
was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but 
with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with 
the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immu- 
table decision, as the asylum of my declining years — a retreat which 
was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me 
by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions 
in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. 

On the other hand, the magnitude and diiificulty of the trust to 
vv'hich the voice of my country called me, being suffiicient to awaken 
in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny 
into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence 
one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed 
in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious 
of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver 
is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just 
appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be afTected. 

All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too 
much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by 
an afifectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence 
of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my in- 
capacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares 
before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead 
me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share 
of the partiality in which they originated. 

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible 
Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United 

Above Is from first inaugural address delivered in New York, April 30, 1789. 



22 History of the Uniti£1) States. 

States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character 
of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some 
token of providential agency; and in the important revohition just 
accompHshed in the system of their united government the tranquil 
deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities 
from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means 
by which most governments have been established without some 
return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the 
future blessings which the past seem to presage. 

When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, 
then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in 
which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every 
pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance 
departed; and being still under the impressions which produced it, 
I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal 
emoluments winch may be indispensably included in a permanent 
provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray 
that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed 
may, during my continuance in it, be limited to such actual expendi- 
tures as the public good may be thought to require. 

It doubtless is important that all treaties and compacts formed by 
the United States with other nations, whether civilized or not, should 
be made with caution and executed with fidelity. 

It is said to be the general understanding and practice of nations, 
as a check on the mistakes and indiscretions of ministers or commis- 
sioners, not to consider any treaty negotiated and signed by such 
officers as final and conclusive until ratified by the sovereign or 
government from whom they derive their powers. This practice has 
been adopted by the United States respecting their treaties wdth 
European nations, and I am inclined to think it would be advisable 
to observe it in the conduct of our treaties with the Indians; for 
though such treaties, being on their part made by their chiefs or 
rulers, need not be ratified by them, yet, being formed on our part 
by the agency of subordinate ofificers, it seems to be both prudent 
and reasonable that their acts should not be binding on the nation 
until approved and ratified by the Government. It strikes me that 
this point should be well considered and settled, so that our national 
proceedings in this respect may become uniform and be directed by 
fixed and stable principles. 



George Washington. 23 

first annual address, january 8, 1 790. 

I embrace with great satisfaction the opportunity of congratu- 
lating you on the present favorable prospects of our pubHc affairs. 
The recent accession of the important State of North Carohna to the 
Constitution of the United States, the rising credit and respectability 
of our country, the general and increasing good-will toward the 
Government of the Union, and the concord, peace, and plenty with 
which we are blessed are circumstances auspicious in an eminent 
degree to our national prosperity. 

Among the many objects which will engage your attention that 
of providing for the common defense will merit particular regard. 
To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of pre- 
serving peace. 

A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to whicH 
end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and 
interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend 
to render them independent of others for essentials, particularly mili- 
tary, supplies. 

There was reason to hope that the pacific measures adopted with 
regard to certain hostile tribes of Indians would have relieved the 
inhabitants of our southern and western frontiers from their depreda- 
tions, that we ought to be prepared to afford protection to those parts 
of the Union, and, if necessary, to punish aggressors. 

The interests of the United States require that our intercourse with 
other nations should be facilitated by such provisions as will enable 
me to fulfill my duty in that respect in the manner which circum- 
stances may render most conducive to the public good, and to this 
end that the compensations to be made to the persons who may be 
employed should, according to the nature of their appointments, be 
defined by law, and a competent fund designated for defraying the 
expenses incident to the conduct of our foreign affairs. 

Various considerations also render it expedient that the terms on 
which foreigners may be admitted to the rights of citizens should be 
speedily ascertained by a uniform rule of naturalization. 

Uniformity in the currency, weights, and measures of the United 
States is an object of great importance, and will, I am persuaded, be 
duly attended to. 

The advancement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures by 
all proper means will not, I trust, need recommendation; but I can 



24 History of the United States. 

not forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving efifectual 
encouragement as well to the introduction of new and useful inven- 
tions from abroad as to the exertions of skill and genius in producing 
them at home, and of facilitating the intercourse between the distant 
parts of our country by a due attention to the post-office and post- 
roads. 

Having received official information of the accession of the State 
of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations to the Constitution of 
the United States, June i, 1790, I take the earliest opportunity of 
communicating the same, with my congratulations on this happy 
event, which unites under the General Government all the States 
which were originally confederated, and have directed my secretary 
to lay before you a copy of the letter from the president of the con- 
vention of the State of Rhode Island to the President of the United 
States. 

A treaty of peace and friendship between the United States and 
the Creek Nation was made and concluded on the 7th day of the 
present month of August, 1790. To the end that the same may be 
observed and performed with good faith on the part of the United 
States, I have ordered the said treaty to be published; and I do 
hereby enjoin and require all officers of the United States, civil and 
military, and all other citizens and inhabitants thereof, faithfully to 
observe and fulfill the same. 

It hath at this time become peculiarly necessary to warn the citi- 
zens of the United States against a violation of the treaties made at 
Hopewell, on the Keowee, on the 28th day of November, 1785, and 
on the 3d and loth days of January, 1786, between the United States 
and the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations of Indians. 

SECOND ANNUAL ADDRESS, DECEMBER 8, I79O. 

I feel much satisfaction in being able to repeat my congratula- 
tions on the favorable prospects which continue to distinguish our 
public affairs. The abundant fruits of another year have blessed our 
country with plenty and with the means of a flourishing commerce. 
The progress of public credit is witnessed by a considerable rise of 
American stock abroad as well as at home, and the revenues allotted 
for this and other national purposes have been productive beyond 
the calculations by which they were regulated. 

In conformity to the powers vested in me by acts of the last ses- 
sion, a loan of 3,000,000 florins has been completed in Holland. As 



George Washington. 25 

well the celerity with which it has been filled as the nature of the 
terms (considering the more than ordinary demand for borrowing 
created by the situation of Europe) give a reasonable hope that the 
further execution of those powers may proceed with advantage and 
success. 

I have received communications by which it appears that the dis- 
trict of Kentucky, at present a part of Virginia, has concurred in cer- 
tain propositions contained in a law of that State, in consecjuence of 
which the district is to become a distinct member of the Union, in 
case the requisite sanction of Congress be added. For this sanction 
application is now made. 

It has been heretofore known to Congress that frequent incursions 
have been made on our frontier settlements by certain banditti of 
Indians from the northwest side of the Ohio. These aggravated 
provocations rendered it essential to the safety of the western settle- 
ments that the aggressors should be made sensible that the Govern- 
ment of the Union is not less capable of punishing their crimes than 
it is disposed to respect their rights and reward their attachments. 
As this object could not be efifected by defensive measures, it became 
necessary to put in force the act which empowers the President to 
call out the militia for the protection of the frontiers, and I have 
accordingly authorized an expedition in which the regular troops in 
that quarter are combined with such drafts of militia as were deemed 
sufficient. 

The disturbed situation of Europe, and particularly the critical 
posture of the great maritime powers, requires that we should not 
overlook the tendency of a war, and even of preparations for a war, 
among the nations most concerned in active commerce with this 
country to abridge the means, and thereby at least enhance the price, 
of transporting its valuable productions to their proper markets. I 
recommend it to your serious reflections how far and in what mode 
it may be expedient to guard against embarrassments from these 
contingencies by such encouragements to our own navigation as will 
render our commerce and agriculture less dependent on foreign bot- 
toms, which may fail us in the very moments most interesting to both 
of these great objects. Our fisheries and the transportation of our 
own produce offer us abimdant means for guarding ourselves against 
this evil. 

The laws you have already passed for the establishment of a judiciary 
system have opened the doors of justice to all descriptions of persons. 



26 History of the United States. 

You will consider in your wisdom whether improvements in that 
system may yet be made, and particularly whether an uniform process 
of execution on sentences issuing from the Federal courts be not de- 
sirable through all the States. 

The patronage of our commerce, of our merchants and seamen, 
has called for the appointment of consuls in foreign countries. It 
seems expedient to regulate by law the exercise of that jurisdiction 
and those functions which are permitted them, either by express 
convention or by a friendly indulgence, in the places of their resi- 
dence. The consular convention, too, with His Most Christian 
Majesty of France has stipulated in certain cases the aid of the na- 
tional authority to his consuls established here. Some legislative 
provision is requisite to carry these stipulations into full eftect. 

The establishment of the militia, of a mint, of standards of weights 
and measures, of the post-ofifice and post-roads are subjects which 
are abundantly urged by their own importance. 

The sufficiency of the revenues you have established for the objects 
to which they are appropriated leaves no doubt that the residuary 
provisions will be commensurate to the other objects for which the 
public faith stands now pledged. Allow me, moreover, to hope that 
it will be a favorite policy with you, not merely to secure a payment 
of the interest of the debt funded, but as far and as fast as the growing 
resources of the country will permit, to exonerate it of the principal 
itself. The appropriation made of the Western land explains your 
dispositions on this subject, and I am persuaded that the sooner that 
valuable fund can be made to contribute, along with other means, to 
the actual reduction of the public debt, the more salutary will the 
measure be to every public interest, as well as the more satisfactory 
to our constituents. 



Soon after I was called to the administration of the Government 
I found it important to come to an understanding with the Court of 
London on several points interesting to the United States, and par- 
ticularly to know whether they were disposed to enter into arrange- 
ments by mutual consent which might fix the commerce between the 
two nations on principles of reciprocal advantage. For this purpose 
I authorized informal conferences with their ministers, and from these 
I do not infer any disposition on their part to enter into any arrange- 
ments merely commercial. 



George Washington. 2'j 

Conceiving that in the possible event of a refusal of jusfice on the 
part of Great Britain we should stand less committed should it be 
made to a private rather than to a public person, I employed Mr. 
Gouverneur Morris, who was on the spot, and without giving him 
any definite character, to enter informally into the conferences before 
mentioned. For your more particular information I lay before you 
the instructions I gave him and those parts of his communications 
M'herein the British ministers appear either in conversation or by 
letter. These are two letters from the Duke of Leeds to Mr. Morris, 
and three letters of Mr. Morris giving an account of two conferences 
with the Duke of Leeds and one with him and Mr. Pitt. 

The sum of these is that they declare without scruple they do not 
mean to fulfill what remains of the treaty of peace to be fulfilled on 
their part, by which we are to understand the delivery of the posts 
and payment for property carried off, till performance on our part, 
and compensation where the delay has rendered the performance now 
impracticable; that on the subject of a treaty of commerce they 
avoided direct answers, so as to satisfy Mr. Morris they did not 
mean to enter into one unless it could be extended to a treaty of 
alliance offensive and defensive, or unless in the event of a rupture 
with Spain. 

As to the sending a minister here, they made excuses at the first 
conference, seemed disposed to it in the second, and in the last 
expressed an intention of so doing. Their views being thus suffi- 
ciently ascertained, I have directed Mr. Morris to discontinue his 
communications with them. 

The aspect of affairs in Europe during the last summer (1790) and 
especially between Spain and England, gave reason to expect a favor- 
able occasion for pressing to accommodation the imsettled matters 
between them and us. Mr. Carmichael, our charge d'affaires at 
Madrid, having been long absent from his country, great changes hav- 
ing taken place in our circumstances and sentiments during that 
interval, it was thought expedient to send some person, in a private 
character, fully acquainted with the present state of things here, to be 
the bearer of written and confidential instructions to him, and at 
the same time to possess him in full of all those details, facts and topics 
of argument which could not be conveyed in writing, but which 
would be necessary to enable him to meet the reasonings of that 
Court with advantage. Colonel David Humphreys was sent for these 
purposes. 



28 History of the United States. 

An additional motive for this confidential mission arose in the same 
quarter. The Court of Lisbon had on several occasions made the most 
amicable advances for cultivating friendship and intercourse with the 
United States. The exchange of a diplomatic character had been 
informally, but repeatedly, suggested on their part. It was our in- 
terest to meet this nation in its friendly dispositions and to concur in 
the exchange proposed. But my wish was at the same time that the 
character to be exchanged should be of the lowest and most eco- 
nomical grade. To this it was known that certain rules of long 
standing at th.at Court would produce obstacles. 

Colonel Humphreys was charged with dispatches to the Prime 
Minister of Portugal and with instructions to endeavor to arrange 
this to our views. It happened, however, that previous to his arrival 
at Lisbon the Queen had appointed a minister resident to the 
LTnited States. This embarrassment seems to have rendered the 
difficulty completely insurmountable. The minister of that Court 
in his conferences with Colonel Humphreys, professing every wish to 
accommodate, yet expresses his regret that circumstances do not 
permit them to concur in the grade of charge d'affaires, a grade of 
little privilege or respectability by the rules of their Court and held 
in so low estimation with them that no proper character would accept 
it to go abroad. In a letter to the Secretary of State he expresses the 
same sentiments, and annoimces the appointment on their part of 
a minister resident to the United States, and the pleasure with which 
the Queen will receive one from us at her Court. A copy of his 
letter, and also of Colonel Humphreys', giving the details of this 
transaction, will be delivered to you. 

On consideration of all circumstances I have determined to accede 
to the desire of the Court of Lisbon in the article of grade. I am 
aware that the consequences will not end here, and that this is not the 
only instance in which a like change may be pressed. But should it 
be necessary to yield elsewhere also, I shall think it a less evil than to 
disgust a government so friendly to us as that of Portugal. I do 
not mean that the change of grade shall render the mission more 
expensive. I have, therefore, nominated David Humphreys minister 
resident from the United States to Her Most Faithful Majesty, the 
Queen of Portugal. 

T will proceed to take measures (February 22, 1791) for the ransom 
of our citizens in captivity at Algiers. 



George Washington. 29 

The recognition of our treaty with the new Emperor of Morocco 
requires also previous appropriation and provision. 

The act for the admission of the State of Vermont into this Union 
having fixed on this as the day of its admission, March 4, 1791, it 
was thought that this would also be the first day on which any officer 
of the Union might legally perform any act of authority relating to 
that State. 

Pursuant to the powers vested in me (March 4, 1791) by the act 
entitled "An act repealing after the last day of June next the duties 
heretofore laid upon distilled spirits imported from abroad and laying 
others in their stead, and also upon spirits distilled within the United 
States, and for appropriating the same," I have thought fit to divide 
the United States into the following districts, namely: 

The district of New Hampshire, to consist of the State of New 
Hampshire; the district of Massachusetts, to consist of the State of 
Massachusetts; the district of Khode Island and Providence Planta- 
tions, to consist of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plan- 
tations; the district of Connecticut, to consist of the State of Connec- 
ticut; the district of Vermont, to consist of the State of Vermont; the 
district of New York, to consist of the State of New York; the district 
of New Jersey, to consist of the State of New Jersey; the district of 
Pennsylvania, to consist of the State of Pennsylvania; the district of 
Delaware, to consist of the State of Delaware; the district of Mary- 
land, to consist of the State of Maryland; the district of Virginia, to 
consist of the State of Virginia; the district of North Carolina, to con- 
sist of the State of North Carolina; the district of South Carolina, 
to consist of the State of South Carolina ; and the district of Georgia, 
to consist of the State of Georgia. 

It hath been represented to me that James O'Fallon is levying 
an armed force in that part of the State of Virginia which is called 
Kentucky, disturbs the public peace, and sets at defiance the treaties 
of the United States with the Indian tribes, the act of Congress en- 
titled "An act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian 
tribes," and my proclamations of the 14th and 26th days of August, 
1790, founded thereon; and it is my earnest desire that those who have 
incautiously associated themselves with the said James O'Fallon may 
be warned of their danger, I have, therefore, thought fit to declare 
that all persons violating the treaties and act aforesaid shall be 
prosecuted with the utmost rigor of the law, 



30 



History of the United States. 



By a proclamation bearing date the 24th day of January of this 
present year, 1791, and in pursuance of certain acts of the States of 
Maryland and Mrginia and of the Congress of the United States, 
therei-i mentioned, certain lines of experiment were directed to be run 
in tJie neighborhood of Georgetown, in Maryland, for the purpose of 
determining the location of a part of the territory of ten miles square 
for the permanent seat of tlie Government of the United States, and 
a certain part was directed to be located within the said lines of 
experiment on both sides of the Potomac and above the limit of the 
Eastern Branch prescribed by the said act of Congress; 

And Congress by an amendatory act passed on the 3d day of the 
present month of March, 1791, have given further authority to the 
I'resident of the United States " to make any part of the territory 
below the said limit and above the mouth of Hunting Creek a part 
of the said district, so as to include a convenient part of the Eastern 
Branch and of the lands lying on the lower side thereof, and also the 
town of Alexandria:" 

Now, therefore, for the purpose of amending and completing the 
location of the whole of the said territory of ten miles square in con- 
formity with the said amendatory act of Congress, I do hereby declare 
and make known that the whole of the said territory shall be located 
and included within the four lines following, that is to say: 

Beginning at Jones' Point, being the upper cape of Hunting Creek, 
in Virginia, and at an angle in the outset of 45 degrees west of the 
north, and running in a direct line ten miles for the first line; then 
beginning again at the same Jones' Point and running another direct 
line at a right angle with the first across the Potomac ten miles for 
the second line; then from the termination of the said first and second 
lines running two other direct lines of ten miles each, the one crossing 
the Eastern Branch aforesaid and the other the Potomac, and meeting 
each other in a point. 

And I do accordingly direct the commissioners named under the 
authority of the said first-mentioned act of Congress to proceed forth- 
with to have the said four lines run, and by proper metes and bounds 
defined and limited, and thereof to make due report under their 
hands and seals; and the territory so to be located, defined, and limited 
shall be the whole territory accepted by the said acts of Congress as 
the district for the permanent seat of the Government of the United 
States. 



George Washington. 31 

third annual address, october 25, i79i. 

The rapid subscriptions to the Bank of the United States, which 
completed the sum allowed to be subscribed in a single day, is among 
the striking evidences, not only of confidence in the Government, 
but of resource in the community. 

Among the most important of present necessities is the defense and 
security of the Western frontiers. To accomplish it on the most 
humane principles was a primary wish. 

Accordingly, at the same time that treaties have been provisionally 
concluded and other proper means used to attach the wavering and 
to confirm in their friendship the well-disposed tribes of Indians, 
effectual measures have been adopted to make those of a hostile 
description sensible that a pacification was desired upon terms of 
moderation and justice. 

Those measures having proved unsuccessful, it became necessary 
to convince the refractory of the power of the United States to punish 
their depredations. Offensive operations have, therefore, been di- 
rected, to be conducted, however, as consistently as possible with the 
dictates of humanity. Some of these have been crowned with full 
success and others are yet depending. The expeditions which have 
been completed were carried on under the authority and at the 
expense of the United States by the militia of Kentucky, whose enter- 
prise, intrepidity, and good conduct are entitled to peculiar com- 
mendation. 

Overtures of peace are still continued to the deluded tribes, and 
considerable numbers of individuals belonging to them have lately 
renounced all further opposition, removed from t4ieir former situations, 
and placed themselves under the immediate protection of the United 
States. 

It is sincerely to be desired that all need of coercion in future may 
cease and that an intimate intercourse may succeed, calculated to 
advance the happiness of the Indians and to attach them firmly to 
the United States. 

In order to this it seems necessary — 

That they should experience the benefits of an impartial dispensa- 
tion of justice. 

That the mode of alienating their lands, the main source of discon- 
tent and war, should be so defined and regulated as to obviate im- 
position, and as far as may be practicable, controversy concerning the 
reality and extent of the alienations which are made. 



32 History of the United States. 

That commerce with them should be promoted under regulations 
tending to secure an equitable deportment toward them, and that such 
rational experiments should be made for imparting to them the bless- 
ings of civilization as may from time to time suit their condition. 

That the Executive of the United States should be enabled to 
employ the means to which the Indians have been long accustomed 
for uniting their immediate interests with the preservation of peace. 

And that efficacious provision should be made for inflicting adequate 
penalties upon all those who, by violating their rights, shall infringe 
the treaties and endanger the peace of the Union. 

A system corresponding with the mild principles of religion and 
philanthropy toward an unenlightened race of men, whose happiness 
materially depends on the conduct of the United States, would be as 
honorable to the national character as conformable to the dictates of 
sound policy. 

The completion of the census of the inhabitants, for which provision 
was made by law, has been duly notified (excepting one instance in 
which the return has been informal, and another in which it has been 
omitted or miscarried), and the returns of the officers who were 
charged with this duty, which will be laid before you, wall give you 
the pleasing assurance that the present population of the United 
States borders on 4,000,000 persons. 

It is proper also to inform you that a further loan of 2,500,000 
florins has been completed in Holland, the terms of which are similar 
to those of the one last announced, except as to a small reduction of 
charges. Another, on like terms, for 6,000,000 florins, had been set 
on foot under circumstances that assured an immediate completion. 



With a view to relieve the merchants and merchandise of the 
United States from the extra duties to which they are or may be sub- 
jected in the ports of Denmark, I have thought it for the interest of 
the United States that a consul be appointed to reside at Copenhagen 
(March 6, 1792). I, therefore, nominate Hans Rudolph Saaby, a 
Danish subject and merchant of Copenhagen, to be consul for the 
United States of America at the port of Copenhagen and for such 
other places within the allegiance of His Danish Majesty as shall be 
nearer to the said port than to the residence of any other consul or 
vice-consul of the United States within the same allegiance. 



uvv,UcuUfY\> ol IWv "' vv>v.uv ''•iiuiuuxCi ItvouTiib «us . .Svv Su/tU a >ttili.c| UuiioJ 






, f / // — 

d<.\\.i>.'{ m.Kl UVU >i(lr ,v' UrUiK Hui >iUSiU\'U\»l ivvxrt JY'VaULt, W'*^ 

Ic d\t (.m tvl YuU-i v-(kSuUiu'. \c-f Uu miwujcia vwui S^iyvuxX 'v-.^>;TCUb, loW^ 

sUUvUl^V^ 0( (.lO\HY>\\Ul"ni UWUU X\V\Ui iVVXlV IH' ''.i.iV X V "V UO W- C^U K« W' *- 

a,yuA/ 

WASHINGTON'S FIRST THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION. 



h)iK>(mva t(if»v kc **.«•> If iYu|\Ki>v( on (Mil iuuvib a itu^x lUut ^cUnvvx >Scvvit 
vmmuYiSt, \Hv(<u _ ic ^VK^^tvxtib -Won iW <ArrtHAav\(t c-j |lv^svut^^ aviol 

ivnU iu>/v>it A _ U' yvvuiw W\iS Cou/vUtt^ vneiK. uuiil ^ndw (i ,S(Jc aval jvTfr- 
cj sci>Yivk^ ^ota^i, >n^YuaUJ ,tv%ui ,|iuU^ u>xd j\vxuU*j Ic u,.yuvYt uiC lUe. 






George Washington. 35 

The adoption of a constitution for the State of Kentucky has been 
notified to me (November 6, 1792). The Legislature will share with 
me in the satisfaction which arises from an event interesting to the 
happiness of the part of the nation to which it relates and conducive 
to the general order. 

A supplementary arrangement has been made by me, pursuant to 
the acts of the 3d day of March, 1791, and the 8th day of May, 1792, 
for raising a revenue upon foreign and domestic distilled spirits, in 
respect to the subdivisions and officers which have appeared to me 
necessary and to the allowances for their respective services to the 
supervisors, inspectors-, and other officers of inspection, together with 
the estimates of the amount of compensations and charges. 



FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS, DECEMBER 3, 1793- 

Since the commencement of the term for which I have been again 
called into office no fit occasion has arisen for expressing to my fellow- 
citizens at large the deep and respectful sense which I feel of the 
renewed testimony of public approbation. 

As soon as the war in Europe had embraced those powers with 
whom the United States have the most extensive relations there was 
reason to apprehend that our intercourse with them might be inter- 
rupted and our disposition for peace drawn into question by the 
suspicions too often entertained by belligerent nations. It seemed, 
therefore, to be my duty to admonish our citizens of the consequences 
of a contraband trade and of hostile acts to any of the parties, and to 
obtain by a declaration of the existing legal state of things an easier 
admission of our right to the immunities belonging to our situation. 

In this posture of affairs, both new and delicate, I resolved to 
adopt general rules which should conform to the treaties and assert 
the privileges of the United States. Although I have not thought 
myself at liberty to forbid the sale of the prizes permitted by our 
treaty of commerce with France to be brought into our ports, I have 
not refused to cause them to be restored when they were taken within 
the protection of our territory, or by vessels commissioned or 
equipped in a warlike form within the limits of the United States. 

I can not recommend to your notice measures for the fulfillment 
of our duties to the rest of the world without again pressing upon you 
the necessity of placing ourselves in a condition of complete defense 



;^6 History of the United States. 

and of exacting from them the fulfillment of their duties toward us. 
The United States ought not to indulge a persuasion that, contrary 
to the order of human events, they will forever keep at a distance 
those painful appeals to arms with which the history of every other 
nation abounds. There is a rank due to the United States among 
nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputa- 
tion of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to 
repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instru- 
ments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all 
times ready for war. 

The connection of the United States with. Europe has become 
extremely interesting. The occurrences which relate to it and have 
passed under the knowledge of the Executive will be exhibited to 
Congress in a subsequent communication. 

The commissioners charged with the settlement of accounts be- 
tween the United States and individual States concluded their import- 
ant functions within the time limited by law, and the balances struck 
in their report, which will be laid before Congress, have been placed 
on the books of the Treasury. 

On the 1st day of June last an installment of 1,000.000 florins be- 
came payable on the loans of the United States in Holland. This 
was adjusted by a prolongation of the period of reimbursement in 
nature of a new loan at an interest of 5 per cent, for the term of 
ten years, and the expenses of this operation were a commission of 
3 per cent. 

The first installment of the loan of $2,000,000 from the Bank of the 
United States has been paid, as was directed by law. For the sec- 
ond it is necessary that provision should be made. 

No pecuniary consideration is more urgent than the regular re- 
demption and discharge of the public debt. On none can delay be 
more injurious or an economy of time more valuable. 

The productiveness of the public revenues hitherto has continued 
to equal the anticipations which were formed of it, but it is not 
expected to prove commensurate with all the objects which have 
been suggested. Some auxiliary provisions will, therefore, it is pre- 
sumed, be requisite, and it is hoped that these may be made con- 
sistently with a due regard to the convenience of our citizens, who 
can not but be sensible of the true wisdom of encountering a small 
present addition to their contributions to obviate a future accumula- 
tion of burthens. But here I can not forbear to recommend a repeal 
of the tax on the transportation of public prints. 



George Washington. - 37 

Having a letter of the i6th of August, 1793, from the Secretary 
of State to our minister at Paris, stating the conduct and urging the 
recall of the minister plenipotentiary of the Republic of France, I 
now communicate (January 20, 1794) that his conduct has been un- 
equivocally disapproved, and that the strongest assurances have been 
given that his recall should be expedited without delay. 

Among the matters which may demand regulations (January 21, 
1794) is the effect, in point of organization, produced by the separa- 
tion of Kentucky from the State of Virginia, and the situation with 
regard to the law of the territories northwest and southwest of the 
Ohio. 

The laws respecting light-house establishments require, as a con- 
dition of their permanent maintenance at the expense of the United 
States, a complete cession of soil and jurisdiction. 

In the execution of the Resolution of Congress bearing date the 
26th of March, 1794, and imposing an embargo, I have requested the 
governors of the several States to call forth the force of their militia, 
if it should be necessary, for the detention of vessels. This power is 
conceived to be incidental to an embargo. 

The communications which I have made April 16, 1794, from the 
dispatches of our minister in London contain a serious aspect of our 
affairs with Great Britain. But as peace ought to be pursued with 
imremitted zeal before the last resource, which has so often been the 
scourge of nations, and can not fail to check the advanced prosperity 
of the United States, is contemplated, I have thought proper to nomi- 
nate, and do hereby nominate, John Jay as envoy extraordinary of the 
United States to His Britannic Majesty. 

Whereas it appears that a state of war exists (April 22, 1794), be- 
tween Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain, and the United Nether- 
lands of the one part and France on the other, and the duty and 
interest of the United States require that they should with sincerity 
and good faith adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial 
toward the belligerent powers: 

I have thought fit to declare the disposition of the United States 
to observe the conduct aforesaid toward those powers respectively, 
and to exhort and warn the citizens of the United States carefully 
to avoid all acts and proceedings whatsoever which may in any 
manner tend to contravene such disposition. 

I lay before you in confidence sundry papers (May 21, 1794), by 
which you will perceive the state of affairs between us and the Six 



38 - History of the United States. 

Nations, and the probable cause to which it is owing, and also certain 
information whereby it would appear that some encroachment was 
about to be made on our territory by an officer and party of British 
troops. Proceeding upon a supposition of the authenticity of this 
information, although of a private nature, I have caused the represen- 
tation to be made to the British minister a copy of which accompanies 
this message. 

It can not be necessary to comment upon the very serious nature of 
such an encroachment, nor to urge that this new state of things sug- 
gests the propriety of placing the United States in a posture of 
effectual preparation for an event which, notwithstanding the en- 
deavors making to avert it, may by circumstances beyond our con- 
trol be forced upon us. 

Whereas from a hope that the combinations against the Constitu- 
tion and laws of the United States in certain of the western counties 
of Pennsylvania would yield to time and reflection I thought it suffi- 
cient in the first instance rather to take measures for calling forth 
the militia than immediately 'to embody them, but the mom.ent is 
now come when the overtures of forgiveness, with no other condition 
than a submission to law, have been only partially accepted; when 
every form of conciliation not inconsistent with the being of Govern- 
ment has been adopted without effect; Government is set at defiance, 
the contest being whether a small portion of the United States shall 
dictate to the whole Union, and, at the expense of those who desire 
peace, indulge a desperate ambition: 

Now, therefore, I, George Washington, President of the United 
States, in obedience to that high and irresistible duty consigned to 
me by the Constitution " to take care that the laws be faithfully 
executed," am resolved to reduce the refractory to a due subordina- 
tion to the law, do hereby declare and make known (September 25, 
1794) that, with a satisfaction which can be equaled only by the 
merits of the militia summoned into service from the States of New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, I have received in- 
telligence of their patriotic alacrity in obeying the call; that a force 
which, according to every reasonable expectation, is adequate to the 
exigency is already in motion to the scene of disaffection; that those 
who have confided or shall confide in the protection of the Govern- 
ment shall meet full succor under the standard and from the arms 
of the United States; that those who, having ofifended against the 
laws, have since entitled themselves to indemnity will be treated w^ith 



George Washington. 39 

the most liberal good faith if they shall not have forfeited their claim 
by any subsequent conduct, and that instructions are given accord- 
ingly. 

EIGHTH ANNUAL ADDRESS, DECEMBER /, I796. 

The period during the late session at which the appropriation 
was passed for carrying into effect the treaty of amity, conniierce, 
and navigation between the United States and His Britannic Majesty 
necessarily procrastinated the reception of the posts stipulated to be 
delivered beyond the date assigned for that event. As soon, how- 
ever, as the Governor-General of Canada could be addressed with 
propriety on the subject, arrangements were cordially and promptly 
concluded for their evacuation, and the United States took possession 
of the principal of them, comprehending Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, 
Michilimackinac, and Fort Miami, where such repairs and additions 
have been ordered to be made as appeared indispensable. 

The commissioners appointed on the part of the United States and 
of Great Britain to determine which is the river St. Croix mentioned 
in the treaty of peace of 1783, agreed in the choice of Egbert Benson, 
Esq., of New York, for the third commissioner. The whole met at 
St. Andrews, in Passamaquoddy Bay, in the beginning of October, 
and directed surveys to be made of the rivers in dispute; but deeming 
it impracticable to have these surveys completed before the next year, 
tiiey adjourned to meet at Boston in August, 1797, for the final decis- 
ion of the question. 

Other commissioners appointed on the part of the United States, 
agreeably to the seventh article of the treaty with Great Britain, 
relative to captures and condemnation of vessels and other property, 
met the commissioners of His Britannic Majesty in London in 
August last, when John Trumbull, Esq., was chosen by lot for the 
fifth commissioner. In October following the board were to proceed 
to business. As yet there has been no communication of commis- 
sioners on the part of Great Britain to unite with those who have 
been appointed on the part of the United States for carrying into 
effect the sixth article of the treaty. 

The treaty with Spain required that the commissioners for running 
the boundary line between the territory of the T,^nited States and His 
Catholic IMajesty's provinces of East and West Florida should meet 
at the Natchez before the expiration of six months after the exchange 
of the ratifications, which was effected at Aranjuez on the 25th day of 



40 History of the United States. 

April; and the troops of His Catholic Majesty occupying any posts 
within the limits of the United States were within the same period 
to be withdrawn. 

To an active external commerce the protection of a naval force is 
indispensable. From the best information I have been able to obtain 
it would seem as if our trade to the Mediterranean without a protect- 
ing force will always be insecure and our citizens exposed to the 
calamities from which numbers of them have but just been relieved. 
These considerations invite the United States to look to the means 
and to set about the gradual creation of a navy. 

The institution of a military academy is also recommended by 
cogent reasons. However pacific the general policy of a nation 
may be, it ought never to be without an adequate stock of military 
knowledge for emergencies. 

While in our external relations some serious inconveniences and 
embarrassments have been overcome and others lessened, it is with 
much pain and deep regret I mention that circmnstances of a very 
unwelcome nature have lately occurred. Our trade has suffered 
and is sufYering extensive injuries in the West Indies from the 
cruisers and agents of the French Republic, and communications 
have been received from its minister here wdiich indicate the danger 
of a further disturbance of our commerce by its authority, and which 
are in other respects far from agreeable. 

It has been my constant, sincere, and earnest wish, in conformity 
with that of our nation, to maintain cordial harmony and a perfectly 
friendly understanding with that Republic. 

FAREWELL ADDRESS, SEPTEMBER, I796. 

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the 
Executive Government of the United States being not far distant, 
and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed 
in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important 
trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more 
distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you 
of the resolution I have formed to decline being considered among 
the number of those out of w4iom a choice is to be made. 

I beg you at the same time to do me the justice to be assured that 
this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the 
considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen 



George Washington. 41 

to his countfy; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which 
silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminu- 
tion of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect 
for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the 
step is compatible with both. 

The acceptance of and continuance hitherto in the office to which 
your suffrages have twice called me have been a uniform sacrifice of 
inclination to the opinion of duty and to a deference for what ap- 
peared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have 
been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I 
was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from 
which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination 
to do this previous to the last election had even led to the prepara- 
tion of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the 
then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations 
and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence im- 
pelled me to abandon the idea. I rejoice that the state of your 
concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit 
of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety, 
and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my 
services, that in the present circumstances of our country you will 
not disapprove my determination to retire. 

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust 
were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust 
I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed toward 
the organization and administration of the Government the best ex- 
ertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not un- 
conscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experi- 
ence in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has 
strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the 
increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the 
shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satis- 
fied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my ser- 
vices they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, 
while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene,, 
patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate 
the career of my political life my feelings do not permit me to sus- 
pend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I 
owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred 



42 History of the United States. 

upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has 
supported me, and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of 
manifesting my inviolable attachment by services faithful and perse- 
vering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. It benefits have 
resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remem- 
bered to your praise and as an instructive example in our annals that 
under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direc- 
tion, were liable to mislead; amidst appearances sometimes dubious; 
vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging; in situations in which not 
unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, 
the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts 
and a guaranty of the plans by which they were efifected. Profoundly 
penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave as a 
strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may continue to 
you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and 
brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution, which 
is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its 
administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom 
and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, 
under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful 
a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire 
to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, 
and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare 
which can not end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger 
natural to that solicitude, urge me on an occasion like the present to 
offer to your solemn contemplation and to recommend to your fre- 
quent review some sentiments which are the result of much reflec- 
tion, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all 
important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These 
will be offered to you with the more freedom as you can only see in 
them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly 
have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget as 
an encouragement to it your indulgent reception of my sentiments 
on a former and not dissimilar occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your 
hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm 
the attachment. 

The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also 
now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice 



George Washington. 43 

of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, 
your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very 
liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that 
from different causes and from dififerent quarters much pains will be 
taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the con- 
viction of this truth, as this is the point in your political fortress 
against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be 
most constantly and actively, though often covertly and insidiously 
directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate 
the immense value of your national union to your collective and indi- 
vidual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and 
immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and 
speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; 
watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing 
whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be 
abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every 
attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to 
enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. 
Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a 
right to concentrate your affections. The name of America, which 
belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just 
pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local 
discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same 
religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a 
common cause fought and triumphed together. The independence 
and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and joint efforts, 
of common dangers, sufferings, and successes. 

But these considerations, however pow^erfully they address them- 
selves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which 
apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our 
country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding 
and preserving the union of the whole. 

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the SaiifJi, protected 
by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions 
of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial 
enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The 
SoittJi, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the same agency of the 
North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning 
partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its par- 



44 History of the United States. 

ticular navigation invigorated; and while it contributes in different 
ways to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navi- 
gation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength to 
which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a like intercourse 
with the West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of 
interior communications by land and water will more and more find, 
a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad or 
manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies 
requisite to its growth and comfort, and what is perhaps of still greater 
consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indis- 
pensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and 
the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed 
by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other 
tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether 
derived from its own separate strength or from an apostate and un- 
natural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically pre- 
carious. 

While, then, every part of our country thvis feels an immediate and 
particular interest in union, all the parts combined can not fail to 
find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater 
resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less 
frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations, and what is 
of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from 
those broils and wars between themselves which so frequently afflict 
neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, 
which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but 
which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues w^ould 
stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the neces- 
sity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any 
form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to 
be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense 
it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your 
liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the 
preservation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflect- 
ing and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the union as 
a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a 
common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experi- 
ence solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were 
criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of 
tVe whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respect- 



George Washington. 45 

ive subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is 
well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and 
obvious motives to union affecting all parts of our country, while 
experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will 
always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter 
may endeavor to weaken its bands. 

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union it oc- 
curs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been 
furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations — 
Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western — whence designing men 
may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local 
interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influ- 
ence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and 
aims of other districts. You can not shield yourselves too much 
against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these 
misrepresentations ; they tend to render alien to each other those who 
ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants 
of our Western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head. 
They have seen in the negotiation by the Executive and in the unani- 
mous ratification by the Senate of the treaty with Spain, and in the 
universal satisfaction at that event throughout the United States, a 
decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among 
them of a policy in the General Government and in the Atlantic States 
unfriendly to their intetrests in regard to the Mississippi. They have 
been witnesses to the formation of two treaties — that with Great 
Britain and that with Spain — which secure to them everything they 
could desire in respect to our foreign relations toward confirming 
their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preserva- 
tion of these advantages on the union by which they were procured? 
Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, 
who would sever them from their brethren and connect them with 
aliens? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your union a government for 
the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between 
the parts can be an adequate substitute. They must inevitably ex- 
perience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all 
times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have 
improved upon your first essay by the adoption of a Constitution of 
Government better calculated than your former for an intimate union 
and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This 
Government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and un- 



46 History of the United States. 

awed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, com- 
pletely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting 
security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its 
own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. 
Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in 
its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true 
liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people 
to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the 
constitution which at any time exists till changed by an explicit 
and authentic act of the whole people is sacredly obligatory upon all. 
The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish 
government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the 
established government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and 
associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real de- 
sign to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and 
action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this funda- 
mental principle and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize fac- 
tion; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the 
place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often 
a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community, and, 
according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the 
public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous 
projects of faction rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome 
plans, digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests. 

However combinations or associations of the above description may, 
now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of 
time and things to become potent engines by which cunning, am- 
bitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power 
of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, 
destroying afterward the very engines which have lifted them to 
unjust dominion. 

Toward the preservation of your Government and the permanency 
of your present happy state, it is requisite not only that you steadily 
discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, 
but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its 
principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault 
may be to effect in the forms of the Constitution alterations which 
will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what 
can not be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you 
may be invited remember that time and habit are at least as necessary 



George Washington. 47 

to fix the true character of governments as of other human institu- 
tions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real 
tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in 
changes upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion exposes to 
perpetual change, from the endless variety of h}'pothesis and opinion; 
and remember especially that for the efficient management of your 
common interests in a country so extensive as ours a government of 
as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is 
indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with 
powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, 
indeed, little else than a name where the government is too feeble to 
withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the 
society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all 
in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and 
property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, 
with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical 
discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and 
warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of 
the spirit of party generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having 
its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists 
under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, con- 
trolled, or repressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen in 
its greatest rankness and is truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharp- 
ened by tiie spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in 
different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormi- 
ties, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more 
formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which 
result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose 
in the absolute power of an individual, and sooner or later the chief 
of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his 
competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own eleva- 
tion on the ruins of public liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, which 
nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight, the common and 
continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the 
interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the 
public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded 



48 History of the United States. 

jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against 
another; foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the 
door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated ac- 
cess to the government itself through the channels of party passion. 
Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the 
policy and will of another. 

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks 
upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive 
the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and 
in governments of a monarchial cast patriotism may look with in- 
dulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those 
of- the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit 
not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency it is certain 
there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose; 
and there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by 
force of public opinion to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be 
quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into 
a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free 
country should inspire caution in those intrusted with its administra- 
tion to confine themselves within their respective constitutional 
spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to 
encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to con- 
solidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, 
whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate 
of that love of power and proneness to abuse it which predominates 
in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this posi- 
tion. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political 
power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and 
constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions 
by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern, 
some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve 
them must be as necessary as to institute them. If in the opinion 
of the people the distribution or modification of the constitutional 
powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amend- 
ment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there 
be no change by usurpation; for though this in one instance may be 
the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free 
governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly 
overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which 
the use can at any time yield. 



George Washington. 49 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, 
religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would 
that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert 
these great pillars of human happiness — these firmest props of the 
duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the 
pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could 
not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let 
it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, 
for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are 
the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us 
with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained 
without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of 
refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experi- 
ence both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in 
exclusion of religious principle. 

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring 
of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less 
force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere 
friend to it can look with indifiference upon attempts to shake the 
foundation of the fabric? Promote, then, as an object of primary 
importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In 
proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public 
opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public 
credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as pos- 
sible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remem- 
bering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently 
prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the 
accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, 
but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts 
which unavoidable wars have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing 
upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves ought to bear. The 
execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives; but it is 
necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to 
them the performance of their duty it is essential that you should 
practically bear in mind that toward the payment of debts there must 
be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes 
can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and un- 
pleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the selec- 
tion of the proper objects, which is always a choice of dif^culties, 
ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the con- 



50 History of the United States. 

duct of the Government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence 
in tlie measures for obtaining revenue which the pubUc exigencies 
may at any time dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace 
and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct. 
And can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will 
be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period a great 
nation to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example 
of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. 
Who can doubt that in the course of time and things the fruits of 
such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which 
might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence 
has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? 
The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which 
ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices? 

In the execution of such a plan nothing is more essential than that 
permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations and pas- 
sionate attachments for others should be excluded, and that in place 
of them just and amicable feelings toward all should be cultivated. 
The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an 
habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its ani- 
mosity or to* its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray 
from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against an- 
other disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay 
hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable 
when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. 

Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody con- 
tests. The nation prompted by ill-will and resentment sometimes im- 
pels to war the government contrary to the best calculations of policy. 
The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, 
and adopts through passion what reason would reject. At other 
times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects 
of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and per- 
nicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of 
nations has been the victim. 

So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another pro- 
duces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facili- 
tating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where 
no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities 
of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels 
and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. 



-fS=:r' 




P 

c 
o 

< 



George Washington. 53 

Tt leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied 
to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the con- 
cessions by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been re- 
tained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate 
in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld; and it gives 
to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, who devote themselves 
to the favorite nation, facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of 
their own country without odium, sometimes even with popularity, 
gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a com- 
mendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public 
good the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or 
infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attach- 
ments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and inde- 
pendent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper 
with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead 
public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils! Such an 
attachment of a small or weak toward a great and powerful nation 
dooms th.e former to be the satellite of the latter. Against the insidi- 
ous wiles of foreign influence, I conjure you to believe me, fellow- 
citizens, the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, 
since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of 
the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy, 
to be useful, must be impartial, else it becomes the instrument of the 
very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Ex- 
cessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of an- 
other cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, 
and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. 
Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable 
to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the 
applause and confidence of the people to surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in 
extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political 
connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engage- 
ments let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none or a 
very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent con- 
troversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. 
Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by 
artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordi- 
nary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities. 



54 History of the United States. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue 
a different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient gov- 
ernment, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury 
from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will 
cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupu- 
lously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility 
of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving 
us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, 
guided by justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit 
our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our 
destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and 
prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, 
or caprice? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any 
portion of the foreign world, so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty 
to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing 
infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less appli- 
cable to public than to private affairs that honesty- is always the best 
policy. I repeat, therefore, let those engagements be observed in 
their genuine sense. But in my opinion it is unnecessary and would 
be unwise to extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments 
on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary 
alliances for extraordinary emergencies. 

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations are recommended by 
policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy 
should hold an equal and impartial hand, neither seeking nor grant- 
ing exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of 
things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of 
commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with powers so disposed, 
in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our mer- 
chants, and to enable the Government to support them, conventional 
rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual 
opinion will permit, but temporary and liable to be from time to time 
abandoned or varied as experience and circumstances shall dictate; 
constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for 
disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of 
its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; 
that by such acceptance it may place itself in the condition of having 
given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached 



George Washington. 55 

with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error 
than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. 
It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought 
to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and 
affectionate friend I dare not hope they will make the strong and 
lasting impression I could wish — that they will control the usual 
current of the passions or prevent our nation from running the course 
which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But if I may even 
flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, 
some occasional good — that they may now and then recur to mod- 
erate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign 
intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism — 
this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare 
by which they have been dictated. 

How far in the discharge of my official duties I have been guided 
by the principles which have been delineated the public records and 
other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. 
To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is that I have at least 
believed myself to be guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe my proclamation 
of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned by 
your approving voice and by that of your representatives in both 
Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually gov- 
erned me, uninfluenced by anv attempts to deter or divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could 
obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under ail the circum- 
stances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and 
interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined 
as far a-s should depend upon me to maintain it with moderation, 
perseverance, and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct it 
is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that, 
according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from 
being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually 
admitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without 
anything more, from tb.e obligation which justice and humanitv im- 
pose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain 
inviolate the relations of peace and amity toward other nations. 



56 History of the United States. 

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best 
be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me a pre- 
dominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country 
to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress with- 
out interruption to that degree of strength and consistency which is 
necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own 
fortunes. 

Though in reviewing the incidents of my Administration I am un- 
conscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my 
defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many 
errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to 
avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry 
with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with 
indulgence, and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its 
service with an upright zeal, the faults of mcompetent abilities v/ill 
be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions 
of rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by 
that fervent love toward it which is so natural to a man who views 
in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several genera- 
tions, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I 
promise myself to realize without alloy the sweet enjoyment of par- 
taking in the midst of my fellow-citizens the benign influence of good 
laws under a free government — the ever-favorite object of my heart, 
and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and 
dangers. 



LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, the first President of the United 
States, was born on the 22d day of February, 1732, at Bridges 
Creek, on the Potomac river, Virginia. His father, Augustine 
Washington, was the son of Lawrence Washington, who emigrated from 
England in 1657, and settled at Bridges Creek. In 1743 Augustine 
Washington died, leaving several children ; George was the oldest. He 
began his military career at the age of nineteen years, when he was ap- 
pointed adjutant- general of one of the districts of A'^irginia, with the 
rank of major. In November, 1753, he was sent on an important 
mission to the French army in the Ohio valley. War followed, and 
he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1754, and took 
part in the war. He was aide-de-camp to General Braddock in 1755, 
and soon after was made commander-in-chief of all the forces of the 



George Washington. 



57 



Colony. He devoted himself for three years to raising and organizing 
troops for her defense. He commanded a successful expedition to 
Fort Du Quesne in 1758. He then left the army and married Mrs. 
Martha Custis, a widow, of Virginia. He lived at Mount Vernon for 
sixteen years, occasionally filling State olifices. He was a delegate 
to the Williamsburg convention, August, 1773, which resolved that 
taxation and representation were inseparable, and the following year 
was sent to the Continental Congress, as a delegate from Virginia. 
The next year he was made commander-in-chief, and assumed the 
command of the Continental army July 2, 1775; and throughout the 
War for Independence commanded the army. At its close he resigned 
his commission, December 23, 1783, and returned to private life. 
He was president of the National Convention, which met in Phila- 
delphia, Penn., May, 1787, and adopted a new constitution increas- 
ing the power of the Federal Government. Fie was elected the first 
President of the United States, and inaugurated in New York city 
on the 30th of April, 1789. At the expiration of his first term he 
was unanimously re-elected. He declined a third term, and retired 
March 4, 1797. In September, 1796, he issued his farewell address 
to the people. He was made lieutenant-general and appointed to 
the command of the army of the United States July 3, 1798. Wash- 
ington was a freemason and acted as master of his lodge. He died, 
after a short illness, on December 14, 1799, at Mount Vernon, Va., 
and was buried there. 











^'^^u^'i 







■ > ^ .r-'-^^/^i' ^,'<^^^J<^'>tte^™;ftij)fi{ii^j4^l>^Mi'. ■'<••• ' '' 



<ll'l.. 



HOUSE AT ARLINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
(It was once owned by George ■Washington and now the property of the Government.) 



58 



History of the United States. 




HOME OF JOHN ADAMS AT QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS. 



CHAPTER II. 



JOHN ADAMS, AS FINANCIER AND STATESMAN. 



By Ellis H. Roberts, Treasurer of the United States. 



'T^HE proclamation of John Adams, as President, with reference to the 
coins of the United States is interesting, but in itself it initiated no 
policy. It was issued July 22, 1797, to carry out the provisions of the act of 
Congress, passed February 9, 1793, which allowed foreign gold and silver 
coins to pass current as legal tender for three years after the mint of the 
United States should commence coinage under the act " establishing a mint 
and regulating the coins of the United States." This proclamation gave notice 
that the mint commenced the coinage of silver on the 15th of October, 1794. 
and of gold on the 31st of July, 179S, and that foreign coins would cease to be 
legal tender in three years from those respective dates. Exception was made 
in favor of Spanish milled dollars. Such a notice was simple compliance with 
the act cited, and marks the progress of the policy of Hamilton, approved by 
Congress under Washington. 

Mr. Adams, according to his grandson, Charles Francis Adams, always 
regarded his mission to Holland and its results, " as the greatest success of 



John Adams. 59 

his life." It is impossible to exaggerate the value of his services in that 
country in their bearing on the finances and the political standing of the young 
republic. He went to Holland with a commission to borrow not more than 
$10,000,000 on the credit of the United States. This was June 21, 1780; but the 
first steps had not been then taken toward recognition and commercial 
relations. Until April, 1781, Mr. Adams' commission put him in the attitude of 
a borrower only. On that date he received authority as minister to Holland, 
and he set at work to be recognized as such. The bills of our infant govern- 
ment had been protested in France, and our poverty was well known in 
Holland. English emissaries were busy in arousing suspicion and extending 
distrust of our solvency. Even the French minister of foreign affairs devised 
obstructions to American plans. The treaty of peace with Great Britain was 
not to be made until September 3, 1783, and, therefore, the United States stood 
before Europe only as a congeries of rebellious colonies. 

The task before Mr. Adams called for the exercise of all his powers, and 
they were well adapted for the emergency. The self-assertion, the confidence 
in himself, his haughty and aggressive bearing, not always helpful to the cause 
of which he was the champion, now were serviceable in the highest degree. 
The presentation of his memorial for recognition as minister plenipotentiary, 
prepared as it was with energy and persistence, marked the turning of the tide. 
First by Friesland, as a separate State, and then by the States General at the 
end of a year recognition was granted, and Mr. Adams rejoiced in a welcome 
among the representatives of the European powers at The Hague, as minister 
from the new power beyond the seas. 

As a recognized nation engaged in negotiating a treaty of commerce with 
Holland, the position of the United States as borrower in the Dutch money 
markets became at once more favorable. The desired funds were not imme- 
diately available, but they were in sight to eyes even less sanguine than those 
of the American minister. On July 28, 1783, he was able to write to Secretary 
Livingston: "I have great pleasure in assuring you that there is not one 
foreign loan open in this republic, which is as good credit and goes as quick 
as mine," although Russia, Spain and France were borrowers. Mr.' Adams 
resisted the bankers in the rate of charges on the loan, and entered on an 
arrangement with leading houses who for forty years continued as financial 
agents of the United States in Holland. The loan of 1782 was for $2,000,000, at 
5 per cent, interest, with charges of 4^ per cent, and i per cent, for paying 
out the interest. Compared with the vast sums of national loans with which the 
present generation is familiar, the amount was small, but it was bread for a 
famishing treasury, in such stress indeed that its bills for 1.250,000 guilders 
went to protest for nonacceptance before funds came in. Fortunately they 
were paid after great effort on their maturity. 



6o History of the United States. 

But halcyon days were not yet assured to Mr. Adams as a borrower. Janu- 
ary 24, 1784, lie wrote to Franklin from The Hague: " I am here only to be a 
witness that American credit in this republic is dead, never to rise again, at 
least until the United States shall all agree upon some plan of revenue, and 
make it certam that interest and principal will be paid." And yet before the 
year by a sort of lottery a loan for 2,000,000 guilders was consummated. 

Although in the meantime the negotiations relating to the treaty of peace 
with Great Britain, with which he was in part charged, had called Mr. Adams 
from The Hague to Paris and London, Mr. Adams was an important factor in 
securing additional loans in Holland in 1787 and 1788. The loan of 1787 v/as 
for $10,000,000, at 5 per cent, interest, with 8 per cent, charges. That of 1788 
was for only 1,000,000 guilders at 5 per cent. With subsequent loans in 
Holland Mr. Adams was not directly connected, but his efforts to establish the 
national credit abroad had set on foot influences which did not cease when he 
was called home to become at first Vice-President and in due course President 
of the United States. 

In his later life, in 1815, Mr. Adams wrote: " I desire no other inscription 
over my gravestone than: ' Here lies John Adams who took upon himself the 
responsibility of the peace with France in the year 1800.' " High courage, 
strong purpose, noble patriotism were involved in that difificult service. But 
his labors and achievements in Holland for the young republic in securing 
moneys for its empty treasury and recognition before the world, do not suffer 
in comparison. 

After all and above all, history will give him unique place, in spite of his 
vanity and his prejudices and his quarrels, as among the architects of the 
republic, the chief organizer of the movement for American independence. 



SZ£C5 ^/:fi^.^?(>o. 



John Adams. 6i 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1797-1801. 



By John Adams. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS DELIVERED IN PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 4, 1 797- 

J HEN it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle 
course for America remained between unlimited submission 
to a foreig-n legislature and a total independence of its claims, 
men of reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable 
power of fleets and armies they must determine to resist than from 
those contests and dissensions, which would certainly arise concerning 
the forms of government to be instituted over the whole and over the 
parts of this extensive country. Relying, however, on the purity of 
their intentions, the justice of their cause, and the integrity and intelli- 
gence of the people, under an overruling Providence which had so 
signally protected this country from the first, the representatives of 
ihis nation, then consisting of little more than half its present number, 
not only broke to pieces the chains which were forging and the rod of 
iron that was lifted up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which had 
bound them. 

Returning to the bosom of my country after a painful separation 
from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station under 
the new order of things, and I have repeatedly laid myself under the 
most serious obligations to support the Constitution. 

SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE, MAY 16, I797. 

After the President of the United States received information that 
the French Government had expressed serious discontents at some 
proceedings of the Government of these States said to afiect the in- 
terests of France, he thought it expedient to send to that country a 
new minister, fully instructed to remove the discontents and sus- 
picions of the French Government and vindicate the conduct of the 
United States. A few davs before his arrival at Paris the French 



62 History of the United States. 

minister of foreign relations informed the American minister then 
resident at Paris of the formalities to be observed by himself in taking 
leave, and by his successor preparatory to his reception. These 
formalities they observed, and on the 9th of December presented 
officially to the minister of foreign relations, the one a copy of his 
letters of recall, the other a copy of his letters of credence. 

These were laid before the Executive Directory. Two days after-' 
ward the minister of foreign relations informed the recalled American 
minister that the Executive Directory had determined not to receive 
another minister plenipotentiary from the United States until after 
the redress of grievances demanded of the American Government, and 
which the French Republic had a right to expect from it. The 
American minister immediately endeavored to ascertain whether by 
refusing to receive him it was intended that he should retire from the 
territories of the French Republic, and verbal answers were given 
that such was the intention of the Directory. 

For his own justification he desired a written answer, but obtained 
none until toward the last of January, when, receiving notice in writ- 
ing to quit the territories of the Republic, he proceeded to Amster- 
dam, where he proposed to wait for instruction from this Government. 
During his residence at Paris cards of hospitality were refused him, 
and he was threatened with being subjected to the jurisdiction of the 
minister of police; but with becoming firmness he insisted on the 
protection of the law of nations due to him as the known minister of a 
foreign power. 

As it is often necessary that nations should treat for the mutual 
advantage of their afifairs, and especially to accommodate and termi- 
nate differences, and as they can treat only by ministers, the right 
of embassy is well known and established by the law and usage of 
nations. The refusal on the part of France to receive our minister 
is, then, the denial of a right; but the refusal to receive him un<-il we 
have acceded to their demands without discussion and without in- 
vestigation is to treat us neither as allies nor as friends, nor as a 
sovereign state. 

With this conduct of the French Government it will be proper to 
take into view the public audience given to the late minister of the 
United States on his taking leave of the Executive Directory. The 
speech of the President discloses sentiments more alarming than the 
refusal of a minister, because more dangerous to our independence 
and union, and at the same time studiously marked with indignities 



John Adams. 63 

toward the Government of the United States. It evinces a disposition 
to separate tlie people of the United States from the Government, to 
persuade them that they have different affections, principles, and in- 
iterests from those of their fellow-citizens whom they themselves have 
chosen to manage their common concerns, and thus to produce divi- 
sions fatal to our peace. Such attempts ought to be repelled with a 
decision which shall convince France and the world that we are not a 
degraded people, humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear and sense 
of inferiority, fitted to be the miserable instruments of foreign in- 
fluence, and regardless of national honor, character, and interest. 

I should have been happy to have thrown a veil over these trans- 
actions if it had been possible to conceal them; but they have passed 
on the great theater of the world, in the face of all Europe and 
America, and with such circumstances of publicity and solemnity 
that they can not be disguised and will not soon be forgotten. 

The diplomatic intercourse between the United States and France 
being at present suspended, the Government has no means of obtain- 
ing official information from that country. Nevertheless, there is 
reason to believe that the Executive Directory passed a decree on 
the 2d of March last contravening in part the treaty of amity and 
commerce of 1778, injurious to our lawful commerce and endanger- 
ing the lives of our citizens. 

While we are endeavoring to adjust all our differences with France 
by amicable negotiation, the progress of the war in Europe, the dep- 
redations on our commerce, the personal injuries to our citizens, and 
the general complexion of affairs render it my indispensable duty to 
recommend effectual measures of defense. 

The commerce of the United States has become an interesting 
object of attention, whether we consider it in relation to the wealth 
and finances or the strength and resources of the nation. With a 
seacoast of near 2,000 miles in extent, opening a wide field for fisher- 
ies, navigation, and commerce, a great portion of our citizens naturally 
apply their industry and enterprise to these objects. Any serious and 
permanent injury to commerce would not fail to produce the most 
embarrassing disorders. To prevent it from being undermined and 
destroyed it is essential that it receive an adequate protection. 

The naval establishment must occur to every man who considers 
the injuries committed on our commerce, the insults offered to our 
citizens, and the description of vessels by which these abuses have 
been practiced. As the sufferings of our mercantile and seafaring 



64 History of the United States. 

citizens can not be ascribed to the omission of duties demandable, 
considering the neutral situation of our country, they are to be 
attributed to the hope of impunity arising from a supposed inabiHty 
on our part to afford protection. To resist the consequences of such 
impressions on the minds of foreign nations and to guard against the 
degradation and serviUty which they must finally stamp on the 
American character is an important duty of Government. 

I have received information (June 12, 1797), from the commissioner 
appointed on the part of the United States, pursuant to the third 
article of our treat}^ with Spain, that the running and marking of the 
boundary line between the colonies of East and West Florida and the 
territory of the United States have been delayed by the officers of His 
Catholic Majesty, and that they have declared their intention to main- 
tain his jurisdiction, and to suspend the withdrawing his troops from 
the military posts they occupy within the territory of the United 
States until the two Governments shall, by negotiation, have settled 
the meaning of the second article respecting the withdrawing of the 
troops, garrisons, or settlements of either party in the territory of the 
other- — -that is, whether, when the Spanish garrisons withdraw, they 
are to leave the works standing or to demolish them — and until, by 
an additional article to the treaty, the real property of the inhabitants 
shall be secured, and, likewise, until the Spanish officers are sure the 
Indians will be pacific. The two first questions, if to be determined 
by negotiation, might be made subjects of discussion for years, and 
as no limitation of time can be prescribed to the other, a certainty in 
the opinion of the Spanish officers that the Indians will be pacific, it 
v;ill be impossible to suffer it to remain an obstacle to the fulfillm.ent 
of the treaty on the part of Spain. 

To remove the first difficulty, I have determined to leave it to the 
discretion of the officers of His Catholic Majesty when they withdraw 
his troops from the forts within the territory of the United States, 
either to leave the works standing or to demolish them; and to re- 
move the second I shall cause an assurance to be published and to be 
particularly communicated to the minister of His Catholic Majesty 
and to the governor of Louisiana that the settlers or occupants of the 
lands in question shall not be disturbed in their possessions bv the 
troops of the United States, but, on the contrary, that they shall be 
protected in all their lawful claims; and to prevent or remove every 
doubt on this point it merits the consideration of Congress whether 
it will not be expedient immediately to pass a law giving positive 



John Adams. 65 

assurance to those inhabitants who, by fair and regular grants or by 
occupancy, have obtained legal titles or equitable claims to lands in 
that country prior to the final ratification of tlie treaty between the 
United States and Spain on the 25th of April, 1796. 

This country is rendered peculiarly valuable by its inhabitants, who 
are represented to amount to nearly 4,000, generally well affected and 
much attached to the United States, and zealous for the establishment 
of a government under their authority. 

I, therefore, recommend the expediency of erecting a government 
in the district of the Natchez similar to that established for the 
territory northwest of the river Ohio. 

The Dey of Algiers has manifested a predilection (June 23, 1797), 
for American-built vessels, and in consequence lias desired that two 
vessels might be constructed and equipped as cruisers according to 
the choice and taste of Captain O'Brien. The cost of two such vessels 
built with live oak and cedar, and coppered, with guns and all other 
equipments complete, is estimated at $45,000. The expense of navi- 
gating them to Algiers may, perhaps, be compensated by the freiglit 
of the stores with which they may be loaded on account of our stipula- 
tions by treaty with the Dey. 

A compliance with the Dey's request appears to me to be of serious 
importance. He will repay the whole expense of building and equip- 
ping the two vessels, and as he has advanced the price of our peace 
with Tripoli, and become pledged for that of Tunis, the United States 
seem to be under peculiar obligations to provide this accommodation, 
and I trust that Congress will authorize the advance of money neces- 
sary for that purpose. 

It also appears to be of importance to place at Algiers a person as 
consul in whose integrity and ability much confidence may be placed, 
to whom a considerable latitude of discretion should be allowed, for 
the interest of the United States in relation to their commerce. That 
country is so remote as to render it impracticable for the consul to 
ask and receive instructions in sudden emergencies. He may some- 
times find it necessary to make instant engagements for money or its 
equivalent, to prevent greater expenses or more serious evils. We 
can hardly hope to escape occasions of discontent proceeding from the 
Regency or arising from, the misconduct or even the misfortunes of 
our commercial vessels navigating in the Mediterranean Sea, and 
unless the causes of discontent arc ?p?odi'y removed the resentment of 
the Regency may be exerted with precipitation on our defenseless 



66 History of the United States. 

citizens and their property, and thus occasion a tenfold expense to the 
United States. For these reasons it appears to me to be expedient 
to vest the consul at Algiers with a degree of discretionary power 
which can be requisite in no other situation; and to encourage a 
person deserving the public confidence to accept so expensive and 
responsible a situation, it appears indispensable to allow him a hand- 
some salary. I should confer on such a consul a superintending power 
over the consulates for the States of Tunis and Tripoli, especially in 
respect to pecuniary engagements, which should not be made without 
his approbation. 

While the present salary of $2,000 a year appears adequate to the 
consulates of Tunis and Tripoli, twice that sum probably will be 
requisite for Algiers. 

Whereas (July 22, 1797), an act of the Congress of the United 
States was passed on the 9th day of February, 1793, entitled "An act 
regulating foreign coins, and for other purposes," in which it was 
enacted " that foreign gold and silver coins shall pass current as money 
within the United States and be a legal tender for the payment of all 
debts and demands " at the several and respective rates therein stated; 
and that " at the expiration of three years next ensuing the time when 
the coinage of gold and silver agreeably to the act intituled 'An act 
•establishing a mint and regulating the coins of the United States ' " 
shall commence at the Mint of the United States (which time shall be 
announced by the proclamation of the President of the United States), 
all foreign gold coins and all foreign silver coins, except Spanish 
milled dollars and parts of such dollars, shall cease to be a legal tender 
as aforesaid: 

Now, therefore, I, the said John Adams, President of the United 
.States, hereby proclaim, announce, and give notice to all whom it 
may concern that, agreeably to the act last above mentioned, the 
coinage of silver at the mint of the United States commenced on the 
15th day of October, 1794, and the coinage of gold on the 31st day 
of July, 1795; and that consequently, in conformity to the act first 
above mentioned, all foreign silver coins, except Spanish milled dol- 
lars and parts of such dollars, will cease to pass current as money 
within the United States and to be a legal tender for the payment of 
any debts or demands after the 15th day of October next, and all 
foreign gold coins will cease to pass current as money within the 
United States and to be a legal tender as aforesaid for the payment of 
any debts or demands after the 31st day of July, which will be A. D, 
1798. 



John Adams. 67 



FIRST ANNUAL ADDRESS, NOVEMBER 22, I/Q/. 

I have entertained an expectation that it would have been in my 
power at the opening of this session to have communicated the agree- 
able information of tlie due execution of our treaty with His CathoHc 
Majesty respecting the withdrawing of his troops from our territory 
and the demarcation of the hne of Umits, but by the latest authentic 
intelligence Spanish garrisons were still continued within our country, 
and the running of the boundary line has not been commenced. These 
circumstances are the more to be regretted as they can not fail to 
afTect the Indians in a manner injurious to the United States. Still, 
however, indulging the hope that the answers which have been given 
will remove the objections offered by the Spanish officers to the im- 
mediate execution of the treaty, I have judged it proper that we 
should continue in readiness to receive the posts and to run the line 
of limits. 

In connection with this unpleasant state of things on our western 
frontier it is proper for me to mention the attempts of foreign agents 
to alienate the affections of the Indian nations and to excite them to 
actual hostilities against the United States. Great activity has been 
exerted by those persons who have insinuated themselves among the 
Indian tribes residing within the territory of the United States to 
influence them to transfer their affections and force to a foreign nation, 
to form them into a confederacy, and prepare them for war against 
the United States. Although measures have been taken to counteract 
these infractions of our rights, to prevent Indian hostilities, and to 
preserve entire their attachment to the United States, it is my duty 
to observe that to give a better effect to these measures and to 
obviate the consequences of a repetition of such practices a law pro- 
viding adequate punishment for such offenses may be necessary. 

I have received (February 2, 1798) from our minister in London two 
acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, one passed on the 4th of July, 
1797, entitled " An act for carrying into execution the treaty of amity, 
commerce, and navigation concluded between His Majesty and the 
United States of America," the other passed on the 19th day of July, 
1797, entitled "An act for regulating the trade to be carried on with 
the British possessions in India by the ships of nations in amity with 
His Majesty." 

While I congratulate you (June 21, 1798) on the arrival of General 
Marshall, one of our late envoys extraordinary to the French Republic, 



68 History of the United States. 

at a place of safety, where he is justly held in honor, I think it my 
duty to communicate to you a letter received by him from Mr. Gerry, 
the only one of the three who has not received his conge. This letter, 
together with another from the minister of foreign relations to liim 
of the 3d of April, and his answer of the 4th, will show the situation 
in which he remains — his intentions and prospects. 

I presume that before this time he has received fresh instructions 
(a copy of which accompanies this message) to consent to no loans, 
and, therefore, the negotiation may be considered at an end. 

I will never send another minister to France without assurances 
that he will be received, respected, and honored as the representative 
of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation. 

I nominate (July 2, 1798) George Washington, of Mount Vernon, 
to be Lieutenant-General and Commander in Chief of all the armies 
raised or to be raised in the United States. 

The citizen Joseph Philippe Letombe having heretofore produced to 
the President of the United States his commission as consul-general 
of the French Republic within the United States of America, and 
another commission as consul of the French Republic at Philadelphia; 
and, in like manner, the citizen Rosier having produced his commis- 
sion as vice-consul of the French Republic at New York; and the 
citizen Arcambal having produced his commission as vice-consul of 
the French Republic at Newport; and citizen Theodore Charles 
Mozard having produced his commission as consul of the French 
Republic within the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and 
Rhode Island; and the President of the United States having there- 
upon granted an exequatur to each of the French citizens above 
named, recognizing them in their respective consular offtces above 
mentioned, and declaring them respectively free to exercise and enjoy 
such functions, powers, and privileges as are allowed to a consul- 
general, consuls, and vice-consuls of the French Republic by their 
treaties, conventions, and laws in that case made and provided; and 
the Congress of the United States, by their act passed the 7th day of 
July, 1798, having declared " that the United States are of right freed 
and exonerated from the stipulations of the treaties and of the consular 
convention heretofore concluded between the United States and 
France, and that the same shall not henceforth be regarded as legally 
obligatory on the Government or citizens of the United States," and 
by a former act, passed the I3tli day of May, 1798, the Congress of 
the United States (July 13, 1798) having "suspended the commercial 




SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



■ 




.li., 

1 . 


)o 


kHz ^ 


(v<a>M 


' • I'l I ^UM vMtA 








V 


i 


i.n 


lvM)m( 


(IH 




il\uvta.s .V 


n u. 


f 


(*1U 


ivijS i.-| (h 


iiiuua s 


i(li>.n-iisjiu(vn( oil 111 Un,(t, .;.. , 




'.I ... ■.,,. • '.. ■ ,( 




aiv (lc( 


..u. 


U-.'.. ir 


. . ,, Ci'ius 


ntu( JM oltiti |uuf|K-StS ' m ,.^,,„ ,,^ j.i . 


vri- 


•"■-■'■■' '' " '■■ 




,1 .Mva 


■•lU 


o 


I , '1 inu!> tn,vvin( us »>iHiMi u'lUim (lu Uu, .i( Si 


ul'-V., 


\ui.(. K ,1 (.<■>. • 


n . 




.,». 


.a .'fall 




.(vuu.uWs'uUu. iivo-iil. ...... -v.... 

fi i,uiv.s, MC.ll oiiuiUi' III !>,. I 
i 


■ U V 

■n , 


.H n>i>Miiiin:^* iM. i 


iu t, 


■. V 1 . 








u 11. 111. i iUid'. iau tifM 




'aiii iiu 1, ,,n .1 .-i' 












.. . 


. i 


u^- ■• ^ vu*. ^ '^l U 


'i U 1 






, 


-Ml 1 1 






'/,_; 








, 


» y 


' ''1 ■■ ^ . 5(lU..l . (.,.. 11 ,,| ., ■ 




UI-kU^ jlvfCUviiM . 


...,,- 




ui 


,<•■ 11. ■( 


■ . ■ '. i n i 


• ^i!'" -A ni...i • ,, ,.. .1,.. ,,. 




:'.-' 'U, net 1,1 >l .<, , 


,.,.u 


:..... 


il 


. U' I i 1 , , , 




1 






,.< , 


\> it.M, I 


1, 


CI. lv\ ... , 

.■l...,( 1 


I. lllCU'.il 


--.. ■■ u,.,,,, ,.,„l.,,,„ . 




■•.>'., o:,-.. liUxV U^i 


>S lA 


V.,,. .,.. 




ti . ;i.u. 


, .(.;i^jy.. 


'■''■' i' '■ ■ ■-■'■■l- > ' ■uuI.uhU C.u'. 


- 


.'>.' •I'.T.^,' ,iN ^n 


-nv.J 


uh(U,v. 


ill. 


1 1 1 1 1 i ' 


" . . M . 1 


' '■ '""^ ''^" -' >■•• ll.^jui.,... 




-••-.i ..--i^.-vao.,. 


...s 


at.v i., 


U i 


.hu. ,;, 


ii :■■ l t ;.; . 


■■ '■■ ' .'".l ...l t,,.i.,.. i,v(it U^. 




UxlSl, ^.- j.vi,> ouVVi H 


u>- 


.■.,•,„.; 


oil 


«.)! (I,. 


i.uda St, 


1 ' 




•kvUK jUMj HUli L-t 


o>y 


iiH'.c, 


aoi 


.UU.( , ., 


1.-. (I., Ill 


1 
lrU| j'.Vi( ii..U|.-| ju<.j u'.iuU lo.l.. .' 




tVi;^Ajj£tiv c| otvv ^V-. 


( .^v. 


UUHO. 


w.a 


.-^IVl, W 


u.uua u 


ua uou(ij ii.ji.t ,hl ,U S((>;i,>ni 




Vfei(UKi4 .'u. I-., c 


U- ^< 


i Uk ^.4 


III > 


^f lU >.v- 


nUA S><a(v 


V !, _ 


-utvifv tt\t vxwit t 


l-(U 


u.u. i,..» 


.A 


-' ctu 


..I .Aula 


Ukj.Uui Itu Uwa^ ,M.CMul .tu-.j 1-; ,1 




i^v.ili*_ ijvxi/V" t^iyxy' 


.•Jcwa 


...XL Ulf 


4->t. 


IU< ^n'ti 


> tiumtvtJ iind >>u...(ti si:tM.n n\u.i ^tj tl:\^ J-,«< 




litntt c^{ir ■(■■' 


' i -i 


talf-Uv^ i. 


i«tn^ ii^i&wci. 


Ui-kn Jl/(^'ifs 




;• 










' 




V, 




/■ 






















*1 


tfui .5Yt'>uil/M,t 








— 








.^rH.^ r^^'--:..^ S.r.N-Muw, •/' 





COINAGE PROCLAMATION BY PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS. 



John Adams. 7^ 

intercourse between the United States and France and the depend- 
encies thereof," which commercial intercourse was the direct and 
chief object of the consular establishment; and 

Whereas actual hostilities have long been practiced on the com- 
merce of the United States by the cruisers of the French Republic 
under the orders of the Government, which orders that Government 
refuses to revoke or relax; and hence it has become improper any 
longer to allow the consul-general, consuls, and vice-consuls of the 
French Republic above named, or any of its consular persons or 
agents heretofore admitted in these United States, any longer to 
exercise their consular functions: 

These are, therefore, to declare that I do no longer recognize the 
said citizen Letombe as consul-general or consul, nor the said citizens 
Rosier and Arcambal as vice-consuls, nor the said citizen Mozard 
as consul of the French Republic in any part of these United States, 
nor permit them or any other consular persons or agents of the 
French Republic heretofore admitted in the United States to exercise 
their functions as such ; and I do hereby wholly revoke the exequaturs 
heretofore given to them respectively, and do declare them absolutely 
null and void from this day forward. 

After the Spanish garrisons had evacuated the posts they occupied 
at the Natchez and Walnut Hills the commissioner of the United 
States commenced his observations to ascertain the point near the 
Mississippi which terminated the northernmost part of the thirty-first 
degree of north latitude. From thence he proceeded to run the bound- 
ary line between the United States and Spain. He was afterward 
joined by the Spanish commissioner, when the work of the former was 
confirmed, and they proceeded together to the demarcation of the 
line. Recent information renders it probable that the Southern 
Indians, either instigated to oppose the demarcation or jealous of the 
consequences of suffering white people to run a line over lands to 
which the Indian title had not been extinguished, have ere this time 
stopped the progress of the commissioners; and considering the mis- 
chiefs which may result from continuing the demarcation in opposition 
of the will of the Indian tribes, the great expense attending it, and that 
the boundaries which the commissioners have actually established 
probably extend at least as far as the Indian title has been extinguished, 
it will, perhaps, become expedient and necessary to suspend further 
proceedings by recalling our commissioner. 



^2 History of the United States. 

The commissioners appointed in pursuance of the fifth article of the 
treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation between the United States 
and His Britannic Majesty to determine what river was truly intended 
under the name of the river St. Croix mentioned in the treaty of peace, 
and forming a part of the boundary therein described, have finally 
decided that question. On the 25th of October they made their decla- 
ration that a river called Scoodiac, which falls into Passamaquoddy 
Bay at its northwestern quarter, was the true St. Croix intended in 
the treaty of peace, as far as its great fork, where one of its streams 
comes from the westward, and the other from the north- 
ward, and that the latter stream is the continuation of the 
St. Croix to its source. This decision, it is understood, will 
preclude all contention among individual claimants, as it seems 
that the Scoodiac and its northern branch bound the grants of land 
which have been made by the respective adjoining Governments. A 
subordinate question, however, it has been suggested, still remains to 
be determined. Between the mouth of the St. Croix as now settled 
and what is usually called the Bay of Fundy lie a number of valuable 
islands. The commissioners have not continued the boundary line 
through any channel of these islands, and unless the bay of Passama- 
quoddy be a part of the Bay of Fundy this further adjustment of 
boundary will be necessary. But it is apprehended that this will not be 
a matter of any difficulty. 

Such progress has been made in the examination and decision of 
cases of captures and condemnations of American vessels which were 
the subject of the seventh article of the treaty of amity, commerce, 
and navigation between the United States and Great Britain that it 
is supposed the commissioners will be able to bring their business to 
a conclusion in August of the ensuing year. 

The commissioners acting under the twenty-fifth article of the treaty 
between the United States and Spain have adjusted most of the claims 
of our citizens for losses sustained in consequence of their vessels and 
cargoes having been taken by the subjects of His Catholic Majesty 
during the late war between France and Spain. 



The proposition of (February 25, 1799) a fresh negotiation with 
France in consequence of advances made by the French Government 
has excited so general an attention and so much conversation as to 



John Adams. y^^ 

have given occasion to many manifestations of the public opinion, from 
which it appears to me that a new modification of the embassy will 
give more general satisfaction to the Legislature and to the nation, 
and perhaps better answer the purposes we have in view. 

It is upon this supposition and with this expectation that I now 
nominate Oliver Ellsworth, Esq., Chief Justice of the United States; 
Patrick Henry, Esq., late governor of Virginia, and William Vans 
Murray, Esq., our minister resident at The Hague, to be envoys extra- 
ordinary and ministers plenipotentiary to the French Republic, with 
full powers to discuss and settle by a treaty all controversies between 
the United States and France. 

It is not intended that the two former of these gentlemen shall em- 
bark for Europe until they shall have received from the Executive 
Directory assurances, signified by their secretary of foreign relations, 
that they shall be received in character, that they shall enjoy all the 
prerogatives attached to that character by the law of nations, and that 
a minister or ministers of equal powers shall be appointed and com- 
missioned to treat with them. 

It has pleased Divine Providence (December 19, 1799) to remove 
from this life our excellent fellow-citizen, George Washington, by 
the purity of his character and a long series of services to his 
country rendered illustrious through the world. It remains for an 
affectionate and grateful people, in whose hearts he can never die, to 
pay suitable honors to his memory. 

The late wicked and treasonable insurrection (May 21. 1800) against 
the just authority of the United States of sundry persons in the covmties 
of Northampton, Montgomery, and Bucks, in the State of Pennsyl- 
vania, in the year 1799, having been speedily suppressed without any of 
the calamities usually attending rebellion, whereupon peace, order, and 
submission to the laws of the United States were restored in the 
aforesaid counties, and the ignorant, misguided, and misinformed in 
the counties have returned to a proper sense of their duty, whereby it 
is become unnecessary for the public good that any future prosecutions 
should be commenced or carried on against any person or persons by 
reason of their being concerned in the said insurrection. 

Wherefore be it known that I, John Adams, President of the United 
States of America, have granted, and by these presents do grant, a 
full, free, and absolute pardon to all and every person or persons con- 
cerned in the said insurrection, excepting as hereinafter excepted, of 
all treasons, misprisions of treason, felonies, misdemeanors, and other 



74 History of the United States. 

crimes by them respectively done or committed against the United 
States in either of the said counties before the 12th day of March, in 
the year 1799, excepting and excluding therefrom every person who 
now standeth indicted or convicted of any treason, misprision of 
treason, or other offense against the United States, whereby remedying 
and releasing unto all persons, except as before excepted, all pains 
and penalties incurred, or supposed to be incurred, for or on account 
of the premises. 

FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS, NOVEMBER 22, 180O. 

Immediately after the adjournment (November 22, 1800) of Con- 
gress at their last session in Philadelphia I gave directions, in com- 
pliance with the laws, for the removal of the public offices, records, 
and property. These directions have been executed, and the public 
officers have since resided and conducted the ordinary business of the 
Government in this place. 

I congratulate the people of the United States on the assembling 
of Congress at the permanent seat of their Government, Washington, 
and I congratulate you, gentlemen, on the prospect of a residence not 
to be changed. Although there is cause to apprehend that accom- 
modations are not now so complete as might be wished, yet there is 
great reason to believe that this inconvenience will cease with the 
present session. 

It would be unbecoming the representatives of this nation to as- 
semble for the first time in this solemn temple without looking up to 
the Supreme Ruler of the Universe and imploring His blessing. 

May this territory be the residence of virtue and happiness! In this 
city may that piety and virtue, that wisdom and magnanimity, that 
constancy and self-government, which adorned the great character 
whose name it bears, be forever held in veneration! Here and through- 
out our country may simple manners, pure morals, and true religion 
flourish forever! 

A treaty of amity and commerce with the King of Persia has been 
concluded and ratified. 

The envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary from the 
United States to France were received by the First Consul with the 
respect due to their character, and three persons with equal powers 
were appointed to treat with them. Although at the date of the last 
official intelligence the negotiation had not terminated, yet it is to be 
hoped that our efforts to effect an accommodation will at length meet 



John Adams. 75 

with a success proportioned to the sincerity with which they have been 
so often repeated. 

While our best endeavors for the preservation of harmony with all 
nations will be continued to be used, the experience of the world and 
our own experience admonish us of the insecurity of trusting too con- 
fidently to their success. We can not, without committing a danger- 
ous imprudence, abandon those measures of self-protection which are 
adapted to our situation and to which, notwithstanding our pacific 
policy, the violence and injustice of others may again compel us to 
resort. While our vast extent of seacoast, the commercial and agn 
cultural habits of our people, the great capital they will continue to 
trust on the ocean, suggest the system of defense which will be most 
beneficial to ourselves, our distance from Europe and our resources 
for maritime strength will enable us to employ it with effect. Season- 
able and systematic arrangements, so far as our resources will justify, 
for a navy adapted to defensive war, and which may in case of necessity 
be quickly brought into use, seem to be as much recommended by a 
wise and true economy as by a just regard for our future tranquillity, 
for the safety of our shores, and for the protection of our property 
committed to the ocean. 

The present Navy of the United States, called suddenly into exist- 
ence by a great national exigency, has raised us in our own esteem, 
and by the protection afforded to our commerce ha»s effected to the 
extent of our expectations the objects for which it was created. 

In connection with a navy ought to be contemplated the fortification 
of some of our principal seaports and harbors. A variety of considera- 
tions urge an attention to this measure of precaution. To give 
security to our principal ports considerable sums have already been 
expended, but the works remain incomplete. 

The manufacture of arms within the United States still invites the 
attention of the National Legislature. At a considerable expense to 
the public this manufacture has been brought to such a si:ate of 
maturity as, with continued encouragement, will supersede the neces- 
sity of future importations from foreign countries. 

I transmit to the Senate (December 15, 1800), a convention, both 
in English and French, between the United States of America and 
the French Republic, signed at Paris on the 30th day of September 
last by the respective plenipotentiaries of the two powers. 

I have received from Elias Roudinot, Esq. (January 17, 1801). 
Director of the Mint of the United States, a report of the 2d of 



76 History of the United States. 

January, representing the state of it, together with an abstract of 
the coins struck at the Mint from the ist of January to the 31st of 
December, 1800; an abstract of the expenditures of the Mint from 
the 1st of January to the 31st of December, inclusive; a statement of 
gain on copper coined at the Mint from the ist of January to the 
31st of December, 1800, and a certificate from Joseph Richardson, 
assayer of the Mint, ascertaining the value of Spanish milled doubloons 
in proportion to the gold coins of the United States to be no more 
than 84 cents and |-||^ parts of a cent for i pennyweight, or 28 grains 
and f l^f parts of a grain to one dollar. These papers I transmit to 
Congress for their consideration. 



LIFE OF JOHN ADAMS. 

JOHN ADAMS was born on October 26, 1735, in Quincy, Mass., 
ten miles from Boston. He was descended from Henry Adams, 
who fled from persecution in Devonshire, England, and settled 
in Massachusetts about 1630, and from John Adams, a founder of the 
Plymouth Colony, in 1620. He graduated from Harvard College in 
1755, and was admitted to the bar of Suffolk county, in 1758. In 1768, 
he removed to Boston and won distinction in the practice of law. In 
1764, he married Abigail Smith, a daughter of Rev. William Smith, 
and granddaughter of Colonel Quincy. He was representative from 
Boston to the legislature of Massachusetts in 1770, and in 1774 was 
a member of the Continental Congress, and was the adviser and great 
supporter of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He declined 
the offer of chief justice of Massachusetts; was a commissioner to 
France, December, 1777, and returned in 1779, and then became a 
member of the Massachusetts convention for framing a State con- 
stitution. He was appointed by Congress, September 29, 1779, min- 
ister plenipotentiary to negotiate a peace treaty with Great Britain. 
In 1 78 1, he was a commissioner to conclude treaties of peace with 
European powers. Was one of the negotiators of a commercial treaty 
with Great Britain in 1783, and one of the commissioners to sign the 
provisional treaty of peace with that nation November 30, 1782, and 
the definite treaty September 3, 1783. Congress appointed him, in 
1785, minister of the United States to court of Great Britain. He re- 
turned June, 1788, and was elected Vice-President on the ticket with 
Washington, and on the assembling of the Senate at New York in 



John Adams. jy 

April, 1789, took his seat as President of that body. He was elected 
President, on the retirement of Washington in 1796, and inaugurated 
March 4, 1797. He retired to his home at Ouincy, Mass., March 4, 
1 801, and was elected president of the convention to revise the con- 
stitution of Massachusetts, but declined on account of his age. His 
wife died in 1818, and on July 4, 1826, he died and was buried at 
Quincy. 



78 



History of the United States, 




MONTICELLO, VIRGINIA, HOME OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



CHAPTER III 



THOMAS JEFFERSON'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 



By John W. Daniel, Senator from Virginia. 



'T^HOMAS JEFFERSON still lives. In the independence of his country, 
-*■ in the rounded domain ocean-washed and sentineled under the mighty 
canopy of the stars that stretches from the delta of the Mississippi to the shores 
of the Columbia and the Golden Gate, in the civil and religious liberty which 
he clad with iron, in the free schools which make dull earth illuminant with 
the light of knowledge; in these and in the immortal principles which he 
enunciated, he lives and will always live. 

The honors heaped upon him by the people were but their gifts to their 
benefactor, the insignia of his labors, his burdens and his cares. How paltry 
seems that long catalogue of official designations compared with what he was 
himself — a man God-gifted and God-armed for the battle of right against 
wrong — compared to what he did for the people, his gifts to them. There is 
not a heart that loves humanity and thrills with noble rage for right and truth 
and justice; there is not a people on earth who are weary and heavy laden 




THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 




< 



/ ;. ii I 



./^ 



^-t •■ O o cfa fn- rt /<- .# Jv 



^^-'He-jciu ^<-j^c<L /*'?<'^, Arivt^ ^{rJe^H/i? <<.-,//<■ <ye^^? ■/.-.///f //^ /^^^- /i --. /. ''t. 



FIRST AND LAST PAGES OF JEFFERSON'S NEUTRALITY PROC- 
LAMATION. 



/://. 


'j y iXt-f /t^Ci /i. J (■^'-'^ 




■ .v^fftcj ^i'"^ '^'"-J^^/V^ c-^/?V^ nc 




.; Ju, C^. /.:.■: ^ ^ 




A\v 




. •■ ,• -, U^ 


'■ 


// " (■ lU-t^y ■ -//..■ /.- ,■ 


■' ■ ■-•■ 


^ 1' < ■ -■ 




' ■, . r ,_,-■ 




:'/yjL (it,/ ^^,yi.'('^, .y; 


ikr 


/A. ,C. . 




■ C r/. -.. ... ./ s-.< 






:>lAr 


. 'h '' f . ' ■ - 






//.-., 






/.Uf //u, /y;;/. ,./ 








\l.c.. r^.., -^f'f^^ 



Thomas Jefferson. 83 

under the burden of oppression; there is not a chancellor who loves equity; 
there is not a devotee who bows his head in free worship to his Maker; there 
is not an ingenuous student by the midnight lamp; there is not a toiler by 
land or sea; yea, there is not an astronomer who reads the stars, nor an 
humble farmer in his cabin, nor a freeman anywhere who treads the earth 
with the spirit of the free who does not bless God that Thomas Jefferson lived, 
and that his life goes marching on! 

What did Jefferson do for the people? Rather, what did he not do? He 
was one of them. He loved them, trusted them, guided them; he cheered them, 
he comforted them, he led them. So much for general-ities. 

It is true, as said by the Cicero of Massachusetts, Edward Everett, that there 
rests on Thomas Jefferson the imperishable renown of having framed the 
Declaration of Independence. But had he never penned a syllable of it he 
would be immortal. It is true he raised his hand against the Established 
Church, threw himself against the great landed proprietors and powerful party 
leaders and brought forth the first statute of religious freedom that adorned the 
history of the world. Imperishable renown with that, but without it he would 
have been immortal. 

It is true he negotiated the purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon, gaining a 
kingdom for a song, securing the free navigation of the Mississippi to the 
countless multitudes who now throng its bank and adding the Great West 
and Southwest to the Union — the greatest territory ever won by man without 
a drop of blood. But without all this he would have been immortal. He will 
be remembered as the most accomplished man America has ever produced, 
the "Admirable Crichton " of the New World, dedicating to mankind his gifts 
from Heaven. He labored for them harder than the horniest hand for its daily 
bread. 

Jefferson's mind was practical and of the kind which turns things to account. 
He loved the mathematics, and no superstition could ever lead him from the 
rock-bed notion that two and two make four, world without end. He was as 
precise in detail as he was broad and accurate in generalization. His mind 
was like an elephant's trunk in that it could pick up a pin or knock down a 
lion. When he was President he went regularly to market, and in his journal 
he kept a record of the date of the appearance of spring fruits and vegetables. 
The stately dome of the University of Virginia and the classic lines of the 
mansion at Monticello bespeak the classic mind that reproduced them. 

He founded the Patent Office of the United States, but do you know that he 
was himself an inventor? WHiile in France, as minister, he wrote his admirable 
notes on Virginia, and with the Revolution fermenting about him, he invented 
a hillside plow which won him a medal from the " Royal Agricultural Society," 



84 History of the United States. 

of the Seine. He was also the inventor of the modern revolving office chair. 
The rice grown in the Southern States to-day is from grain which Jefferson 
hid in his pockets while in Italy, and distributed ten grains at a time tO' the 
farmers on his return. His influence is felt to-day when any important ques- 
tions are up for discussion. As regards the " Monroe Doctrine," he was like 
" John the Baptist " crying in the Wilderness. He foreshadowed it in a letter 
" On the Island of San Domingo." 

He was a child of nature, this glorious Jefferson, and with all his wisdom and 
all his culture he was on the people's side of all questions. An honest son of 
Mother Earth; a man with a man's faults, but no Pharisee. He had fewer 
faults and lesser faults than most, and noble and God-like virtues. 

" The glory of man," said Solomon, " is strength; " and Jefferson was strong. 
In his old age he delighted to gallop his horse along steep mountain roads. 
Strong intellectually — behold his works. Strong morally — see his instinctive 
leap to the right side of all questions, and his inflexible adherence tliereto. 

He was strong in all courage; yea, in civic courage, the rarest of all forms of 
bravery. This Jefferson had the quiet, patient, daring, superb courage that 
looks public opinion in the eye, and dares confront and affront it and not flinch 
the encounter. When he stood for Independence they said " Rebel." When he 
stood for justice they said " Communist." When he stood for religious 
freedom they cried " Infidel." When he aroused the people against monarchy 
and concentrated power they said " Demagogue." But the common people 
heard him gladly. They knew their ears, and with one accord they said " All 
Hail, Our Friend." 

Dying without a penny, his very books, his land, his home were sold away 
from his inheritors, and fighting successfully every battle but his own, he 
crowned the people as victor in every battle that he won. If it is right that 
a man sues for, and if he does not believe that one man is born bridled and 
saddled, and the other booted and spurred — let him pluck a flower from this 
good man's life and wear it in his soul forever. 



^^/^^z^tyrt^^o^^Ch^^^ 



Thomas Jefferson. 85 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1801-1809. 



By Thomas Jefferson. 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 180I. 

CALLED upon to undertake the duties of the first executive 
office of our country, it is proper you should understand what I 
deem the essential principles of our Government,, and conse- 
quently those which ought to shape its Administration. I will com- 
press them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the 
general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to 
all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, 
commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances 
with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as 
the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the 
surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation 
of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the 
sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care 
of the right of election by the people — a well-disciplined militia, our 
best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars 
may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military au- 
thority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly 
burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation 
of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce 
as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all 
abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom 
of the press. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 8, 180I. 

I am able to announce on grounds of reasonable certainty that the 
wars and troubles which have for so many years afflicted our sister 
nations have at length come to an end, and that the communications 
of peace and commerce are once more opening among them. 



86 History of the United States. 

Among- our Indian neighbors also a spirit of peace and friendship 
generally prevails, and I am happy to inform you that the continued 
efforts to introduce among them the implements and the practice of 
husbandry and of the household arts have not been without success; 
that they are becoming more and more sensible of the superiority of 
this dependence for clothing and subsistence over the precarious re- 
sources of hunting and fashing, and already we are able to announce 
that instead of that constant diminution of their numbers produced 
by their wars and their wants, some of them begin to experience an 
increase of population. 

To this state of general peace with which we have been blessed, 
one only exception exists. Tripoli, the least considerable of the 
Barbary States, had come forward with demands unfounded either 
in right or in compact, and had permitted itself to denounce war on 
our failure to comply before a given day. The style of the demand 
admitted but one answer. I sent a small squadron of frigates into 
the Mediterranean, with assurances to that power of our sincere desire 
to remain in peace, but with orders to protect our commerce against 
the threatened attack. The measure was seasonable and salutary. 
The Bey had already declared war. His cruisers were out. Two had 
arrived at Gibraltar. Our commerce in the Mediterranean was 
blockaded and that of the Atlantic in peril. The arrival of our 
squadron dispelled the danger. One of the Tripolitan cruisers having 
fallen in with and engaged the small schooner Enterprise, commanded 
by Lieutenant Sterret, which had gone as a tender to our larger ves- 
sels, was captured, after a heavy slaughter of her men, without the 
loss of a single one on our part. 

The result of the census lately taker, of our inhabitants, to a con- 
formity with which we are now to reduce the ensuing ratio of repre- 
sentation and taxation. You will perceive that the increase of num- 
bers during the last ten years, proceeding in geometrical ratio, prom- 
ises a duplication in little more than twenty-two years. 

Other circumstances, combined with the increase of numbers, have 
produced an augmentation of revenue arising from consumption in a 
ratio far beyond that of population alone; and though the changes in 
foreign relations now taking place so desirably for the whole world 
may for a season affect this branch of revenue, yet weighing all 
probabilities of expense as well as of income, there is reasonable 
ground of confidence that we may now safely dispense with all the 
internal taxes, comprehending excise, stamps, auctions, licenses, car- 



Thomas Jefferson. 87 

riages, and refined sugars, to which the postage on newspapers may 
be added to faciUtate the progress of information, and that the re- 
maining sources of revenue will be sufficient to provide for the sup- 
port of Government, to pay the interest of the public debts, and to 
discharge the principals within shorter periods than the laws or the 
general expectation had contemplated. The success which has at- 
tended the late sales of the public lands shows that with attention they 
may be made an important source of receipt. Among the payments 
those made in discharge of the principal and interest of the national 
debt will show that the public faith has been exactly maintained. 

SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 1 5, l802. 

The cession of the Spanish Province of Louisiana to France, which 
took place in the course of the late war, will, if carried into effect, 
make a change in the aspect of our foreign relations. 

There was reason not long since to apprehend that the warfare in 
which we were engaged with Tripoli might be taken up by some other 
of the Barbary Powers. A re-enforcement, therefore, was immediately 
ordered to the vesels already there. Subsequent information, how- 
ever, has removed these apprehensions for the present. To secure 
our commerce in that sea with the smallest force competent, we have 
supposed it best to watch strictly the harbor of Tripoli. Still, how- 
ever, the shallowness of their coast and the want of smaller vessels 
on our part has permitted some cruisers to escape unobserved, and 
to one of these an American vessel unfortunately fell a prey. The 
captain, one American seaman, and two others of color remain orison- 
ers with them unless exchanged under an agreement formerly made 
with the Bashaw, to whom, on the faith of that, some of his captive 
subjects had been restored. 

The convention with the State of Georgia has been ratified by cheir 
legislature, and a repurchase from the Creeks has been consequently 
made of a part of the Talasscee country. In this purchase has been also 
comprehended a part of the lands within the fork of Oconee and 
Oakmulgee rivers. 

In order to remove every ground of difiference possible with our 
Indian neighbors, I have proceeded in the work of settling with thern 
and marking the boundaries between us. That with the Choctaw 
Nation is fixed in one part and will be through the whole within a 
short time. The country to which their title had been extinguished 
before the Revolution is sufficient to receive a very respectable popula- 



88 History of the United States. 

tion, which Congress will probably see the expediency of encourag- 
ing so soon as the limits shall be declared. We are to view this posi- 
tion as an outpost of the United States, surrounded by strong neigh- 
bors and distant from its support; and how far that monopoly which 
prevents population should here be guarded against and actual habita- 
tion mad^e a condition of the continuance of title will be for con- 
sideration. A prompt settlement, too, of all existing rights and claims 
within this territory presents itself as a preliminary operation. 

In that part of the Indian Territory which includes Vincennes the 
lines settled with the neighboring tribes fix the extinction of their 
title at a breadth of twenty-four leagues from east to west and about 
the same length parallel with and including the Wabash. They have 
also ceded a tract of four miles square, including the salt springs near 
the mouth of that river. 

In the Department of Finance the receipts of external duties for the 
last twelve months have exceeded those of any former year, and that 
the ratio of increase has been also greater than usual. This has 
enabled us to answer all the regular exigencies of Government, to pay 
from the Treasury within one year upward of $8,000,000, principal 
and interest, of the public debt, exclusive of upward of one million 
paid by the sale of bank stock, and making in the whole a reduction 
of nearly five millions and a half of principal, and to have now in the 
Treasury $4,500,000, which are in a course of application to the further 
discharge of debt and current demands. 

A small force in the Mediterranean will still be necessary to restrain 
the Tripoline cruisers, and the uncertain tenure of peace with some 
other of the Barbary Powers may eventually require that force to be 
augmented. The necessity of procuring some smaller vessels for that 
service will raise the estimate, but the difference in their maintenance 
will soon make it a measure of economy. 

Presuming it will be deemed expedient to expend anually a con- 
venient sum toward providing the naval defense which our situation 
may require, I can not but recommend that the first appropriations 
for that purpose may go to the saving what we already possess. No 
cares, no attentions, can preserve vessels from rapid decay which lie 
in water and exposed to the sun. These decays require great and 
constant repairs, and will consume, if continued, a great portion of the 
moneys destined to naval purposes. To avoid this waste of our 
resources it is proposed to add to our navv-yard here a dock within 
which our present vessels may be laid up dry and under cover from 



Thomas Jefferson. 89 

the sun. Under these circumstances experience proves that works 
of wood will remain scarcely at all affected by time. The great 
abundance of running water which this situation possesses, at heights 
far above the leval of the tide, if employed as is practiced for lock 
navigation, furnishes the means for raising and laying up our vessels 
on a dry and sheltered bed. And should the measure be found useful 
here, similar depositories for laying up as well as for building and 
repairing vessels may hereafter be undertaken at other navy-yards 
offering the same means. The plans and estimates of the work, pre- 
pared by a person of skill and experience, will be presented to you 
without delay, and from this it will be seen that scarcely more than 
has been the cost of one vessel is necessary to save the whole. 



The cession (January ii, 1803) of the Spanish Province of Louisiana 
to France, and perhaps of the Floridas, and the late suspension of our 
right of deposit at New Orleans are events of primary interest to the 
United States. On both occasions such measures were promptly taken 
as were thought most likely amicably to remove the present and to 
prevent future causes of inquietude. The objects of these measures 
were to obtain the territory on the left bank of the Mississippi and east- 
ward of that, if practicable, on conditions to which the proper au- 
thorities of our country would agree, or at least to prevent any changes 
which might lessen the secure exercise of our rights. While my con- 
fidence in our minister plenipotentiary at Paris is entire and undimin- 
ished, I still think that these objects might be promoted by joining 
with him a person sent from hence directly, carrying with him the 
feelings and sentiments of the nation excited on the late occurrence, 
impressed by full communications of all the views we entertain on this 
interesting subject, and thus prepared to meet and to improve to an 
useful result the counter propositions of the other contracting party, 
whatsoever form their interests may give to them, and to secure to us 
the ultimate accomplishment of our object. 

I therefore nominate Robert R. Livingston to be minister plenipo- 
tentiary and James Monroe to be minister extraordinary and plenipo- 
tentiary, with full powers to both jointly, or to either on the death of 
the other, to enter into a treaty or convention with the First Consul of 
France for the purpose of enlarging and more effectually securing our 
rights and interests in the river Mississippi and in the Territories 
eastward thereof. 



90 History of the United States. 

But as the possession of these provinces is still in Spain, and the 
course of events may retard or prevent the cession to France being 
carried into effect, to secure our object it will be expedient to address 
equal powers to the Government of Spain also, to be used only in the 
event of its being necessary. 

I therefore nominate Charles Pinckney to be minister plenipoten- 
tiary, and James Monroe, of Virginia, to be minister extraordinary 
and plenipotentiary, with full powers to both jointly, or to either on 
the death of the other, to enter into a treaty or convention with His 
Catholic Majesty for the purpose of enlarging and more efifectually 
securing our rights and interests in the river Mississippi and in the 
Territories eastward thereof. 

THIRD ANNUAL. MESSAGE, OCTOBER I/, 1803. 

The extraordinary agitation produced in the public mind by the 
suspension of our right of deposit at the port of New Orleans, no 
assignment of another place having been made according to treaty. 
They were sensible that the continuance of that privation would be 
more injurious to our nation than any consequences which could 
flow from any mode of redress, but reposing just confidence in the 
good faith of the Government whose officer had committed the wrong 
friendly and reasonable representations were resorted to, and the right 
of deposit was restored. 

Previous, however, to this period we had not been unaware of the 
danger to which our peace would be perpetually exposed whilst so 
important a key to the commerce of the Western country remained 
under foreign power. Difficulties, too, were presenting themselves as 
to the navigation of other streams which, arising within our territories, 
pass through those adjacent. Propositions had, therefore, been au- 
thorized for obtaining on fair conditions the sovereignty of New 
Orleans and of other possessions in that quarter interesting to our 
quiet to such extent as was deemed practicable, and the provisional 
appropriation of $2,000,000 to be applied and accounted for by the 
President of the United States, intended as part of the price, was con- 
sidered as conveying the sanction of Congress to the acquisition pro- 
posed. The enlightened Government of France saw with just discern- 
ment the importance to both nations of such liberal arrangements 
as might best and permanently promote the peace, friendship, and 
interests of both, and the property and sovereignty of all Louisiana 
which had been restored to them have on certain conditions been 



*r^ „,.<;„■,»' 



n*^ 






'L 







FACSIMILE OF PARTS OF JEFFERSON'S ORIGINAL DRAFT OF 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



CJ 






€-«i-f. 



nn^TKjiS u/Ta^J«-^£^^w^ t*«Jt^ AAO-coC/t A«*o-r\.^^^rv '7xa2a4/x, fjtjdU ^ vioKjittyr^ JL 

U^ltJt^k ^ u/ry^ /^4/m"t» t<rw~v.»^ a.fOuty>^^ rkt^ ttju-t^ a1 a^-^iymt.'rl 
"6) U^fhJj'yvUt/t^t/l a-fyti^jrO-kjn^ 'f^^J^^'^^ i^fy-eju. pAA^ty**^ OMi^ un^^JCJ>/'r-Kx.lrc,U/«,c'^^ 

fLjb fL kf^^y^U'r^ </]fTM .Trys^.a^ ■irM'^X^iunA^ fL^jLrit on,.fu>^ JJ%,tU<, .^u/y. 



a/nd uiK»ty-^e Ju^ft^ruUA^ tut- A-oj V«^ifi-c/feo< tr-tdbsAf Xi a/tt/,^ 'f^ Hxji/m . 
Aa. \\a^ -x-VKWi t naJJ aThtn 6ucm ^rr rKt^ outxi.m\-><i^tAjn-^ ^/^^st, ^jCr^^t^ y7j)^tjny&. 
i4^i\^z.'j }K»^Ji^ H^t^rr^tu w*y\*Zd~. ^i-eZtjr<J>l/Xjtri. 'jhjt^ ri-*^^l'<Y '>^-7--,r<''AAl5x*>x. ^. ^-tjt^''J\^ 

'■■■ J j l^tA.^ JT^M-^l-tc^^ frr, f^r J.<, .,.. ..,^, z'^,/ 



yCZ- A^ fhjLt/Y JAjLayt'^^.^- 






y,-«; 






«'»«<l((/>«.</. : u.WJ»-~; uf'jr^LM.^ ■le/1'..c- '- .' • -, 












/— ■ 






■^-c-n^<; >imrfw.g^ ^'..,.i^^■ ^ ^^ , ^ilr ^;■^;a 



Thomas Jefferson. 95 

transferred to the United States by instruments bearing date the 30th 
of April, 1803. 

Whilst the property and sovereignty of the Mississippi and its waters 
secure an independent outlet for the produce of the Western States 
and an uncontrolled navigation through their whole course, free from 
collision with other powers and the dangers to our peace from that 
source, the fertility of the country, its climate and extent, promise in 
due season important aids to our Treasury, and ample provision foi' 
our posterity ascertaining the geography of the country acquired. 

Another important acquisition of territory has also been made since 
the last session of Congress. The friendly tribe of Kaskaskia Indians, 
with which we have never had a diflference, reduced by the wars and 
wants of savage life to a few individuals unable to defend themselves 
against the neighboring tribes, has transferred its country to the 
United States, reserving only for its members what is sufficient to 
maintain them in an agricultural way. The considerations stipulated 
are that we shall extend to them our patronage and protection and 
give them certain annual aids in money, in implements of agriculture, 
and other articles of their choice. This country, among the most 
fertile within our limits, extending along the Mississippi from the 
mouth of the Illinois to and up the Ohio, though not so necessary as a 
barrier since the acquisition of the other bank, may yet be well worthy 
of being laid open to immediate settlement, as its inhabitants may 
descend with rapidity in support of the lower country should future 
circumstances expose that to foreign enterprise. 

The small vessels authorized by Congress with a view to the Medi- 
terranean service have been sent into that sea, and will be able more 
effectually to confine the Tripoline cruisers within their harbors and 
supersede the necessity of convoy to our commerce in that quarter. 

Should the acquisition of Louisiana be constitutionally confirmed 
and carried into effect, a sum of nearly $13,000,000 will then be added 
to our public debt, most of which is payable after fifteen years, before 
which term the present existing debts will all be discharged by the 
established operation of the sinking fund. 

Whereas by an act of Congress authority has been given to the 
President of the United States, whenever he shall deem it expedient, 
to erect the shores, waters, and inlets of the bay and river of Mobile, and 
of the other rivers, creeks, inlets, end bays emptying into the Gulf of 
Mexico east of the said river Mobile and west thereof to thePascagoula, 
inclusive, into a separate district for the collection of duties on im- 



g6 History of the United States. 

ports and tonnage; and to establish such place within the same as he 
shall deem it expedient to be the port of entry and delivery for such 
district; and to designate such other places within the same district, 
not exceeding two, to be ports of delivery only: 

Now know ye that I, Thomas Jefferson, President of the United 
States, do (May 20, 1804) hereby decide that all the above-mentioned 
shores, waters, inlets, creeks, and rivers lying within the boundaries of 
the United States shall constitute and form a separate district, to be 
denominated "the district of Mobile;" and do also designate Fort 
Stoddert, within the district aforesaid, to be the port of entry and 
delivery for the said district. 

fourth annual message, NOVEMBER 8, 1804. 

I have the satisfaction to inform you that the objections which had 
been urged by Spain against the validity of our title to the country of 
Louisiana have been withdrawn, its exact limits, however, remaining 
still to be settled between us; and to this is to be added that, having 
prepared and delivered the stock created in execution of the con- 
vention of Paris of April 30, 1803, in consideration of the cession of 
that country, we have received from the Government of France an 
acknowledgment, in due form, of the fulfillment of that stipulation. 

In the district of Louisiana it has been thought best to adopt the 
division into subordinate districts which had been established under 
its former government. These being five in number, a commanding 
officer has been appointed to each, according to the provisions of the 
law, and so soon as they can be at their stations that district will also 
be in its due state of organization. Li the meantime their places are 
supplied by the officers before commanding there. And the functions 
of the governor and judges of Indiana having commenced, the govern- 
ment, we presume, is proceeding in its new form. The lead mines in 
that district offer so rich a supply of that metal as to merit attention. 
The report now communicated will inform you of their state and of 
the necessity of immediate inquiry into their occupation and titles. 

On this side the Mississippi an important relinquishment of native 
title has been received from the Delawares. That tribe, desiring to 
extinguish in their people the spirit of hunting and to convert super- 
fluous lands into the means of improving what they retain, has ceded 
to us all the country between the Wabash and Ohio south of and 
including the road from the rapids toward Vincennes, for which they 
are to receive annuities in animals and implements for agriculture and 



Thomas Jefferson. 97 

in other necessaries. This acquisition is impoftant, not only for i^s 
extent and fertility, but as fronting 300 miles on the Ohio, and near 
half that on the Wabash. The produce of the settled country de- 
scending those rivers will no longer pass in review of the Indian 
frontier but in a small portion, and, with the cession heretofore made 
by the Kaskaskias, nearly consolidates our possessions north of the 
Ohio, in a very respectable breadth — from Lake Erie to the Missis- 
sippi. The Piankeshaws having some claim to the country ceded by 
the Delawares, it has been thought best to quiet that by fair purchase 
also. So soon as the treaties on this subject shall have received their 
constitutional sanctions they shall be laid before both Houses. 

The state of our finances continues to fulfill our expectations. 
Eleven millions and a half of dollars, received in the course of the 
year ending the 30th of September last, have enabled us, after meeting 
all the ordinary expenses of the year,- to pay upward of $3,600,000 of 
the public debt, exclusive of interest. This payment, with those of the 
two preceding years, has extinguished upward of twelve millions of 
the principal and a greater sum of interest within that period, and by 
a proportionate diminution of interest renders already sensible the 
effect of the growing sum yearly applicable to the discharge of the 
principal. 

SECOND INAUGURAL, MARCH 4, 1805. 

Proceeding to that qualification which the Constitution requires 
before my entrance on the charge again conferred on me, it is my 
duty to express the deep sense I entertain of this new proof of con- 
fidence from my fellow-citizens at large, and the zeal with which it 
inspires me so to conduct myself as may best satisfy their just 
expectations. 

I have said, fellow-citizens, that the income reserved had enabled us 
to extend our limits, but that extension may possibly pay for itself 
before we are called on, and in the meantime may keep down the 
accruing interest; in all events, it will replace the advances we shall 
have made. I know that the acquisition of Louisiana has been dis- 
approved by some from a candid apprehension that the enlargement 
of our territory would endanger its union. But who can limit the 
extent to which the federative principle may operate efifectively? The 
larger our association the less will it be shaken by local passions ; and 
in any view is it not better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi 
should be settled by our own brethren and children than by strangers 
of another family? 



98 History of the United States. 



FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 3, 1805. 

The aspect of our foreign relations has considerably changed. Our 
coasts have been infested and our harbors watched by private armed 
vessels, some of them without commissions, some with illegal com- 
missions, others with those of legal form, but committing piratical 
acts beyond the authority of their commissions. They have captured 
in the very entrance of our harbors, as well as on the high seas, not 
only the vessels of our friends coming to trade with us, but our own 
also. They have carried them off under pretense of legal adjudication, 
but not daring to approach a court of justice, they have plundered 
and sunk them by the way or in obscure places where no evidence 
could arise against them, maltreated the crews, and abandoned them 
in boats in the open sea or on desert shores without food or covering. 
These enormities appearing to be unreached by any control of their 
sovereigns, I found it necessary to equip a force to cruise within our 
own seas, to arrest all vessels of these descriptions found hovering on 
our coasts within the limits of the Gulf Stream and to bring the 
offenders in for trial as pirates. 

The same system of hovering on our coasts and harbors under color 
of seeking enemies has been also carried on by public armed ships to 
the great annoyance and oppression of our commerce. New prin- 
ciples, too, have been interpolated into the law of nations, founded 
neither in justice nor the usage or acknowledgment of nations. Ac- 
cording to these a belligerent takes to itself a commerce with its own 
enemy which it denies to a neutral on the ground of its aiding that 
enemy in the war; but reason revolts at such an inconsistency, and 
the neutral having equal right with the belligerent to decide the 
question, the interests of our constituents and the duty of maintaining 
the authority of reason, the only umpire between just nations, impose 
on us the obligation of providing an effectual and determined oppo- 
sition to a doctrine so injurious to the rights of peaceable nations. 

With Spain our negotiations for a settlement of differences have not 
had a satisfactory issue. Spoliations during a former war, for which 
she had formally acknowledged herself responsible, have been refused 
to be compensated but on conditions affecting other claims in nowise 
connected with them. Yet the same practices are renewed in the 
present war and are already of great amount. On the Mobile, our 
commerce passing through that river continues to be obstructed by 
arbitrary duties and vexatious searches. Propositions for adjusting 



Thomas Jefferson. 99 

amicably the boundaries of Louisiana have not been acceded to. 
While, however, the right is unsettled, we have avoided changing the 
state of things by taking new posts or strengthening ourselves in the 
disputed territories, in the hope that the other power would not by a 
contrary conduct oblige us to meet their example and endanger con- 
flicts of authority the issue of which may not be easily controlled. Bui 
in this hope we have now reason to lessen our confidence. Inroads 
have been recently made into the territories of Orleans and the Missis- 
sippi, our citizens have been seized and their property plundered in 
the very parts of the former which had been actually delivered up by 
Spain, and this by the regular ofBcers and soldiers of that Govern- 
ment. I have, therefore, found it necessary at length to give orders 
to our troops on that frontier to be in readiness to protect our citizens, 
and to repel by arms any similar aggressions in future. 

The receipts at the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th day 
of September last have exceeded the sum of $13,000,000, which, with 
not quite five millions in the Treasury at the beginning of the year, 
have enabled us after meeting other demands to pay nearly two 
millions of the debt contracted under the British treaty and con- 
O vention, upward of four millions of principal of the public debt,' and 
^ four millions of interest. These payments, with those which had been 
made in three years and a half preceding, have extinguished of the 
funded debt nearly eighteen millions of principal. Congress by their 
act of November 10, 1803, authorized us to borrow $1,750,000 toward 
meeting the claims of our citizens assumed by the convention with 
France. We have not, however, made use of this authority, because 
the sum of four millions and a half, which remained in the Treasury 
en the same 30th day of September last, with the receipts which we 
may calculate on for the ensuing year, besides paying the annual sum 
of $8,000,000 appropriated to the funded debt and meeting all the 
current demands which may be expected, will enable us to pay the 
whole sum of $3,750,000 assumed by the French convention and still 
leave us a surplus of nearly $1,000,000 at our free disposal. 



J 



The depredations which had been committed on the commerce 
(December 6, 1805) of the United States during a preceding war by 
persons under the authority of Spain are sufficiently known to all. 
These made it a duty to require from that Government indemnifica- 



loo History of the United States. 

tions for our injured citizens. A convention was accordingly entered 
nito between tlie minister of the United States at Madrid and the 
minister of that Government for foreign afifairs, by which it was 
agreed that spoHations committed by Spanish subjects and carried into 
ports of Spain should be paid for by that nation, and that those com- 
mitted by French subjects and carried into Spanish ports should re- 
main for further discussion. Before this convention was returned to 
Spain with our ratification the transfer of Louisiana by France to the 
United States took place, an event as unexpected as disagreeable to 
Spain. From that moment she seemed to change her conduct and 
dispositions toward us. It was first manifested by her protest against 
the right of France to alienate Louisiana to us, which, however, was 
soon retracted and the right confirmed. Then high offense was 
manifested at the act of Congress establishing a collection district on 
the Mobile, although by an authentic declaration immediately made it 
was expressly confined to our acknowledged limits; and she now re- 
fused to ratify the convention signed by her own minister under the 
eye of his Sovereign unless we would consent to alterations of its 
terms which would have afifected our claims against her for the 
spoliations by French subjects carried into Spanish ports. 

To obtain justice as well as to restore friendship I thought a special 
mission advisable, and accordingly appointed James Monroe minister 
extraordinary and plenipotentiary to repair to Madrid, and in con- 
junction with our minister resident there to endeavor to procure a 
ratification of the former convention and to come to an understanding 
with Spain as to the boundaries of Louisiana. It appeared at once 
that her policy was to reserve herself for events, and in the meantime 
to keep our differences in an undetermined state. After nearly five 
months of fruitless endeavor to bring them to some definite and satis- 
factory result, our ministers ended the conferences without having 
been able to obtain indemnity for spoliations of any description or any 
satisfaction as to the boundaries of Louisiana, other than a declara- 
tion that we had no rights eastvv'ard of the Iberville, and that our line 
to the west was one which would have left us but a string of land on 
that bank of the river Mississippi. Our injured citizens were thus 
left without any prospect of retribution from the wrongdoer, and as to 
boundary each party was to take its own course. That which they 
have chosen to pursue will appear from the documents now com- 
municated. They authorize the inference that it is their intention to 
advance on our possessions until they shall be repressed by an 



Thomas Jefferson. ioi 

opposing force. Considering that Congress alone is constitutionally 
invested with the power of changing our condition from peace to war, 
I have thought it my duty to await their authority for using force in 
any degree which could be avoided. I have barely instructed the 
officers stationed in the neighborhood of the aggressions to protect 
our citizens from violence, to patrol within the borders actually de- 
livered to us, and not to go out of them but when necessary to repel 
an inroad or to rescue a citizen or his property; and the Spanish 
officers remaining at New Orleans are required to depart without 
further delay. It ought to be noted here that since the late change in 
the state of afifairs in Europe Spain has ordered her cruisers and courts 
to respect our treaty with her. 

The conduct of France and the part she may take in the misunder- 
standings between the United States and Spain are too important to 
be unconsidered. She was prompt and decided in her declarations 
that our demands on Spain for French spoliations carried into Spanish 
ports were included in the settlement between the United States and 
France. She took at once the ground that she had acquired no right 
from Spain, and had meant to deliver us none eastward of the Iber- 
ville, her silence as to the western boundary leaving us to infer. her 
opinion might be against Spain in that quarter. Whatever direction 
she might mean to give to these differences, it does not appear that 
she has contemplated their proceeding to actual rupture, or that at the 
date of our last advices from Paris her Goverment had any suspicion 
of the hostile attitude Spain had taken here; on the contrary, we have 
reason to believe that she was disposed to effect a settlement on a plan 
analogous to what our ministers had proposed, and so comprehensive 
as to remove as far as possible the grounds of future collision and 
controversy on the eastern as well as western side of the Mississippi. 

The present crisis in Europe is favorable for pressing such a settle- 
ment, and not a moment should be lost In availing ourselves of it. 

SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 2, 1806. 

The expedition of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke for exploring the river 
Missouri (1804-1805), and the best communication from that to the 
Pacific Ocean has had all the success which could have been expected. 
They have traced the Missouri nearly to its source, descended the 
Columbia to the Pacific Ocean, ascertained with accuracy the geog- 
raphy of that interesting communication across our continent, learnt 
the character of the countrv, of its commerce and inhabitants; and it 



102 History of the United States. 

is but justice to say that Messrs. Lewis and Qarke and their brave 
companions have by this arduous service deserved well of their 
country. 

The attempt to explore the Red River, under the direction of Mr. 
Freeman, though conducted with a zeal and prudence meriting entire 
approbation, has not been equally successful. After proceeding up it 
about 600 miles, nearly as far as the French settlements had extended 
while the country was in their possession, our geographers were 
obliged to return without completing their work. 

Very useful additions have also been made to our knowledge of the 
Mississippi by Lieutenant Pike, who has ascended it to its source. 

The receipts at the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th day 
of September last have amounted to near $15,000,000, which have 
enabled us, after meeting the current demands, to pay $2,700,000 of 
the American claims in part of the price of Louisiana; to pay of the 
funded debt upward of three millions of principal and nearly four of 
interest, and, in addition, to reimburse in the course of the present 
month near two millions of 5^ per cent, stock. These payments and 
reimbursements of the funded debt, with those which had been made 
in the four years and a half preceding, will at the close of the present 
year have extinguished upward of twenty-three millions of principal. 



SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, OCTOBER 2/, 1807. 

On the 22d day of June last (1807), by a formal order from a 
British admiral the frigate " Chesapeake," leaving her port for a distant 
service, was attacked by one of those vessels which had been lying in 
our harbors under the indulgences of hospitality, was disabled from 
proceeding, had several of her crew killed and four taken away. On 
this outrage no commentaries are necessary. Its character has been 
pronounced by the indignant voice of our citizens with an emphasis 
and unanimity never exceeded. I immediately, by proclamation, 
interdicted our harbors and waters to all British armed vessels, forbade 
intercourse with them, and uncertain how far hostilities were intended, 
and the town of Norfolk, indeed, being threatened with immediate 
attack, a sufficient force was ordered for the protection of that place, 
and such other preparations commenced and pursued as the prospect 
rendered proper. An armed vessel of the United States was dis- 
patched with instructions to our ministers at London to call on that 



Thomas Jefferson. 103 

Government for the satisfaction and security required by the outrage. 
A very short interval ought now to bring the answer, communicated 
as soon as received. 

The aggression thus begun has been continued on the part of the 
British commanders by remaining within our waters in defiance of 
the authority of the country, by habitual violations of its jurisdiction, 
and at length by putting to death one of the persons whom they had 
forcibly taken from on board the " Chesapeake." These aggravations 
necessarily lead to the policy either of never admitting an armed 
vessel into our harbors or of maintaining in every harbor such an 
armed force as may constrain obedience to the laws and protect the 
lives and property of our citizens against their armed guests; but the 
expense of such a standing force and its inconsistence with our prin- 
ciples dispense with those courtesies which would necessarily call for 
it, and leave us ecjually free to exclude the navy, as we are the army, 
of a foreign power from entering our limits. 

To former violations of maritime rights another is now added of 
very extensive effect. The Government of that nation has issued an 
order interdicting all trade by neutrals between ports not in amity 
with them; and being now at war with nearly every nation on the 
Atlantic and Mediterranean seas, our vessels are required to sacrifice 
their cargoes at the first port they touch or to return home without 
the benefit of going to any other market. Under this new law of the 
ocean our trade on the Mediterranean has been swept away by seizures 
and condemnations, and that in other seas is threatened with the same 
fate. 

Our differences with Spain remain still unsettled, no measure having 
been taken on her part since my last communications to Congress to 
bring them to a close. But under a state of things which may favor 
reconsideration they have been recently pressed, and an expectation is 
entertained that they may now soon be brought to an issue of some 
sort. 

Among our Indian neighbors in the northwestern quarter some 
fermentation was observed soon after the late occurrences, threatening 
the continuance of our peace. Messages were said to be interchanged 
and tokens to be passing, which usually denote a state of restlessness 
among them, and the character of the agitators pointed to the sources 
of excitement. Measures were immediately taken for providing 
against that danger; instructions were given to require explanations, 
and, with assurances of our continued friendship, to admonish the 



104 History of the United States. 

tribes to remain quiet at home, taking no part in quarrels not belong- 
ing to them. As far as we are yet informed, the tribes in our vicinity, 
who are most advanced in the pursuits of industry, are sincerely dis- 
posed to adhere to their friendship with us and to their peace with all 
others, while those more remote do not present appearances suffi- 
ciently quiet to justify the intermission of military precaution on crur 
part. 

The great tribes on our southwestern quarter, much advanced be- 
yond the others in agriculture and household arts, appear tranquil and 
identifying their views with ours in proportion to their advancement. 

The appropriations of the last session for the defense of our seaport 
towns and harbors were made under expectation that a continuance 
of our peace would permit us to proceed in that work according to 
our convenience. It has been thought better to apply the sums then 
given toward the defense of New York, Charleston, and New Orleans 
chiefly, as most open and most likely first to need protection, and to 
leave places less immediately in danger to the provisions of the present 
session. 

The gunboats, too, already provided have on a like principle been 
chiefly assigned to New York, New (Orleans, and the Chesapeake. For 
the purpose of manning these vessels in sudden attacks on our harbors 
it is a matter for consideration whether the seamen of the United 
States may not justly be formed into a special militia, to be called 
on for tours of duty in defense of the harbors where they shall happen 
to be, the ordinary militia of the place furnishing that portion which 
may consist of landsmen. 

The moment our peace was threatened I deemed it indispensable to 
secure a greater provision of those articles of military stores with 
which our magazines were not sufficiently furnished. 

Whether a regular army is to be raised, and to what extent, must 
depend on the information so shortly expected. In the meantime 
I have called on the States for quotas of militia, to be in readiness for 
present defense, and have, moreover, encouraged the acceptance of 
volunteers; and these have offered themselves with great alacrity in 
every part of the Union. 

I informed Congress at their last session of the enterprises against 
the public peace which were believed to be in preparation by Aaron 
Burr and his associates, of the measures taken to defeat them and to 
bring the offenders to justice. Their enterprises were happily de- 
feated by the patriotic exertions of the militia whenever called into 



Thomas Jefferson. 105 

action, by the fidelity of the Army, and energy of the commander-in- 
chief in promptly arranging the difficulties presenting themselves on 
the Sabine, repairing to meet those arising on the Mississippi, and 
dissipating before their explosion plots engendering there. 

The accounts of the receipts of revenue during the year ending on 
the 30th day of September last (1807), being not yet made up, a cor- 
rect statement will be hereafter transmitted from the Treasury. In 
the meantime, it is ascertained that the receipts have amounted to 
near $16,000,000, which, with the five millions and a half in the 
Treasury at the beginning of the year, have enabled us, after meeting 
the current demands and interest incurred, to pay more than four 
millions of the principal of our funded debt. These payments, with 
those of the preceding five and a half years, have extinguished of the 
funded debt $25,500,000, being the whole which could be paid or 
purchased within the limits of the law and of our contracts, and have 
left us in the Treasury $8,500,000. 



EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, NOVEMBER 8, I< 

Under a continuance of the belligerent measures which, in defiance 
of laws which consecrate the rights of neutrals, overspread the ocean 
with danger, it will rest with the wisdom of Congress to decide on the 
course best adapted to such a state of things; and bringing with them, 
as they do, from every part of the Union the sentiments of our con- 
stituents, my confidence is strengthened that in forming this decision 
they will, with an unerring regard to the essential rights and interests 
of the nation, weigh and compare the painful alternatives out of which 
a choice is to be made. Nor should I do justice to the virtues which 
on other occasions have marked the character of our fellow-citizer.s 
if I did not cherish an equal confidence that the alternative chosen, 
whatever it may be, will be maintained with all the fortitude and 
patriotism which the crises ought to inspire. 

The documents containing the correspondences on the subject of 
the foreign edicts against our commerce, with the instructions given 
to our ministers at London and Paris, are laid before you. 

The communications made to Congress at their last session ex- 
plained the posture in which the close of the discussions relating to 
the attack by a British ship of war on the frigate " Qiesapeake " left a 



io6 History of the United States. 

subject on which the nation had manifested so honorable a sensibiHty. 
Every view of what had passed authorized a beUef that immediate 
steps would be taken by the British Government for redressing a 
wrong which the more it was investigated appeared the more clearly 
to require what had not been provided for in the special mission. It 
is found that no steps have been taken for the purpose. 

The Emperor of Russia has on several occasions indicated senti- 
ments particularly friendly to the United States, and expressed a wish 
through different channels that a diplomatic intercourse should be 
established between the two countries. (February 24, 1809.) His 
high station and the relations of Russia to the predominant powers of 
Europe must give him weight with them according to the vicissitudes 
of the war, and his influence in negotiations for peace may be of 
value to the United States should arrangements of any sort affecting 
them be contemplated by other powers in the present extraordinary 
state of the world; and under the constant possibility of sudden nego- 
tiations for peace I have thought that the friendly dispositions of such 
a power might be advantageously cherished by a mission which should 
manifest our willingness to meet his good will. I accordingly com- 
missioned in the month of August last William Short, formerly 
minister plenipotentiary of the United States at Madrid, to proceed as 
minister plenipotentiary to the Court of St. Petersburg, and he pro- 
ceeded accordingly; and I now nominate him to the Senate for that 
appointment. 



UFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON was born April 2, 1743, at Shadwell, 
Albermarle county, Va. He was the oldest son of Peter Jeffer- 
son who died in 1757. He was fitted in private schools for 
William and Mary College which he entered in 1760. He 
graduated, and began to practice law in 1767. He represented 
his county in the Virginia house of burgesses from 1769 to the 
period of the Revolution. In 1772 he married Mrs. Martha 
Skelton, a daughter of John Wales, an eminent lawyer of 
Virginia. He was cliosen, March 12, 1773, member of the first com- 
mittee of correspondence established by the Colonial legislature. In 
1775 he was elected delegate to the Continental Congress, and placed 
on the Committee of Five to prepare the Declaration of Independence, 
and he drafted the Declaration which, with slight amendments, was 



Thomas Jefferson. 107 

adopted July 4, 1776. On June i, 1779, he was elected by the 
legislature, governor of Virginia, to succeed Patrick Henry. At the 
end of his term as governor he retired to private life, but was the 
same year elected to the legislature. He was appointed one of the 
commissioners to negotiate treaties with France in 1776, but declined. 
Congress appointed him in 1782 minister plenipotentiary to act with 
others in Europe in negotiating a treaty of peace with Great Britain. 
He was again elected a delegate to Congress in 1783, and he then 
advocated and had adopted the dollar as the unit and the present 
system of coins and decimals. He was appointed minister pleni- 
potentiary, May, 1784, to Europe to assist John Adams and Benja- 
min Franklin, in negotiating treaties of commerce. In March, 1785, 
Congress appointed him minister to France to succeed Dr. Franklin, 
where he remained until September, 1789. On reaching Norfolk, 
November 23, 1789, he received a letter from Washington, offering 
him the appointment of Secretary of State in his Cabinet, which he 
accepted, and became the first Secretary of State under the Con- 
stitution. He resigned his place in the Cabinet, December 31, 1793, 
and retired to his home. In 1796 he was a candidate for President, 
but John Adams receiving the highest number of votes, was elected 
President, and JefTerson became Vice-President for four years from 
March 4, 1797. In 1800 he was again the choice of his party for 
President. He and Aaron Burr received an equal number of electoral 
votes, and under the Constitution the House of Representatives was 
called upon to elect. Jefiferson was chosen on the thirty-sixth ballot; 
was re-elected in 1804, and retired from public life March 4, 1809. He 
died on the same day as John Adams, July 4, 1826. 



io8 



History of the United States. 







HOME OF JAMES MADISON AT MONTPELIER, VIRGINIA. 



CHAPTER IV. 



JAMES MADISON, FATHER OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



By Congressman James D. Richardson, of Tennessee. 



'' I ^ HE fourth President of the United States was James Madison. He was 
■ a graduate from Princeton, at twenty, became a lawyer soon there- 

after, and was twenty-five years of age when Hberty was proclaimed from 
Independence Hall in 1776. He was the servant of the people of Virginia from 
1776 to 1779 in their local affairs when Washington, Jefiferson, Henry, Monroe 
and the Lees were his associates, and then entered into the broader field of 
federal or colonial statecraft where his coadjutors besides the illustrious sons of 
Viiginia were Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Hancock, Pinckney, and others of 
renown. 

The Continental Congress was struggling with the problem of government 
for the people of tlie thirteen colonies from 1774 to 1789. Two periods 



James Madison. 109 

distinctively mark the term of that body. The first extends from the first 
meeting on September 4, 1774, until the ratification of the confederacy, March 
I, 1781; while the second extends from the latter date until the organization of 
the Government under the Constitution, IMarch 4, 1789. The first period has 
been called that of " the revolutionary national government," the second that 
of " the confederation." 

The problem of government during the war of the Revolution was serious 
enough, but legislation that was found inadequate to the occasion during the 
conflict of arms could easily be supplemented and made sufficient by the 
strong hand of the military. But when the contest was ended with smiling 
peace, that problem was augmented until it assumed dangerous proportions. 

The Continental Congress did the best it could in the way of exercising the 
powers of a general government. We were, in a national capacity, sending and 
receiving embassadors, entering into treaties and conventions, and had a place 
in the general community of nations, but it was apparent that the powers 
derived from the articles of confederation were inadequate to the required 
objects of an eflfective national government. Taxes were to be levied, revenues 
raised, commerce — domestic and foreign — was to be regulated, trade en- 
couraged, the credit and faith of the nation restored and preserved, the 
voluntary league or compact of friendship between the independent States was 
to cease, and a constitutional government was to be founded upon the self- 
evident truths of the great Declaration of Independence. 

The Government under "the articles of confederation was a failure, and the 
Union was in the throes of dissolution. Various remedies were proposed, 
discussed and discarded. The discussions were acrimonious and able, as they 
were eloquent and patriotic. 

Mr. Madison was a prominent actor in all the proceedings of the Continental 
Congress, and of the conventions which followed. The convention of 1787 
framed the Constitution of the United States. He was its most conspicuous 
and distinguished member. A saving in this respect should possibly be made 
in favor of Washington, but if so, only because of his military prowess and 
eminence. Washington and Madison were closely allied in the work of this 
body, and generally coincided in their views upon questions which arose therein. 
In this august assembly were Washmgton, Madison. Hamilton, Langdon, 
Sherman, Livingston, Rutledge, Pinckney, Franklin, and others of no less 
fame, but the great star of Madison was not at all dimmed in its lustre by any 
superior light reflected by any other member. 

The work of this convention was the greatest ever achieved by man. It 
consummated that which was commenced by the Declaration of Independence. 
It founded a government with the proper distribution of the legislative, 



no 



History of the United States. 



executive and judicial powers, a government resting upon the consent of the 
governed, a government of the people themselves, for the people, and by the 
people, and which shall not perish from the earth. 

It put into actual and immediate practice a theory of government which men 
of letters and gifted scholars had sometimes dreamed of in their imaginations, 
but which had not before been enjgycd in reality by any nation or people. 
The Constitution prepared and submitted to the people was to be adopted or 
rejected by them. Under Mr. Madison's influence and guidance after a sharp 
contest the Constitution was ratified by Virginia. He contributed by his pen 
the most vigorous arguments in favor of its adoption. He was a member of 
the First Congress, which assembled in 1789, and continued a member for 
eight years thereafter, or during the entire period of Washington's administra- 
tion. He bore an active and leading part in all the measures for the organiza- 
tion of the Government. He did not agree with Hamilton, but generally 
indorsed Jefferson in his theories and political tenets. 

During the term of John Adams, as President, Mr. Madison accepted a seat 
in the \'irginia legislature. In 1798, while a member of that body, he made a 
report on the subject of the alien and sedition laws which had been passed by 
his opponents in Congress, and prepared a series of resolutions against those 
laws which have since formed a text for all persons who believe in the 
doctrine of State rights. 

For eight years he was the Secretary of State under Mr. Jefferson, and suc- 
ceeded him as President, March 4, iSog. He was re-elected in 1812, and thus 
filled the executive chair two full terms. As chief magistrate he successfully 
fought the war with Great Britain to which he had reluctantly given his assent. 
His administration of public affairs was popular, and he had the pleasure of 
surrendering his ofifice to his personal and political friend and associate, Mr. 
Monroe. 

He doubtless felt he could well retire from the cares of public life at a time 
of general peace and prosperity, with the prospect for his country, whose 
foundations were now on an enduring basis, of a brilliant and glorious career, 
in her destiny as a great, growing and independent nation. 

Mr. Monroe has indelibly attached to his name, an American doctrine, which 
of itself would immortalize him. It is known the world over as the " Monroe 
Doctrine." It is familiar to all persons at this period. The message of Mr. 
Monroe, in which this doctrine is enunciated, bears date December 2, 1823; 
and yet Mr. Madison as early as January 3, 181 1, in a message to Congress 
while discussing the interference by Great Britain in the affairs of the then 
territory of Florida, coupled with her threats to take possession of that 
territory, used the following language, namely: " I recommend to the con- 




-'.^{^CZ^^-t^ ..^^ tU^^^^^ ^T^f^ 



FOURTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 




PRESIDENT MADISON'S DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST 
GREAT BRITAIN. WlllCfl BROUGHT ON THE -WAR OF 1812." 



James Madison. 113 

sideration of Congress the seasonableness of a declaration that the United 
States could not see without serious inquietude any part of a neigiiboring 
territory in which they have in different respects so deep and so just a concern, 
pass from the hands of Spain into those of any other foreign power." Who 
can say, therefore, it should not be the Madison doctrine rather than the 
Monroe Doctrine. 

Mr. Madison as a debater was able, and as a writer had few equals among 
American statesmen. The style of his public papers, and, indeed, all his 
writings have been much admired. When he died at the advanced age of 
eighty-five (85) years, he was the last surviving signer of the Constitution. 

Although he was a delegate to the Continental Congress, and a member of 
Congress from Virginia, although he wrote the Virginia resolutions of 1798, 
was Secretary of State for eight years, was elected President in 1808, and re 
elected in 1812, and conducted his country in triumph through a great war, was 
associated with Hamilton and Jay in the composition of the Federalist, was the 
author of the Madison papers and other famous writings, it was not for these 
things or any of them his fame is to endure. His act and policy in the framing 
of the marvelous instrument, the Constitution of our country, his matchless 
advocacy of it with his voice and pen, and his adherence to its provisions at 
iill times and in all exigencies, obtained for him the proudest title ever be- 
stowed upon a man, the title of the " Father of the Constitution." It is for 
this " act and policy " he will be remembered by posterity. 



J^ii^^c^ Bx^2^c^tn^*^yr<y 



114 HlSTOKY OF THE UNITED StATES 

ADMINISTRATION OF 1809-1817. 



By James Madison. 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1809. 

ASSURING myself that under every vicissitude the determined 
spirit and united councils of the nation will be safeguards to its 
honor and its essential interests, I repair to the post assigned 
me with no other discouragement than what springs from my own in- 
adequacy to its high duties. 

Whereas, in consequence of a communication (August 9, 1800) 
from His Britannic Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister 
plenipotentiary declaring that the British orders of covmcil of 
January and November, 1807, would have been withdrawm on the 
loth day of June last, and by virtue of authority given in such 
event by the eleventh section of the act of Congress entitled "An 
act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United 
States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies, 
and for other purposes," I, James Madison, President of the United 
States, did issue my proclamation bearing date on the 19th of April 
last, declaring that the orders in council aforesaid would have been so 
withdrawn on the said loth day of June, after which the trade sus- 
pended by certain acts of Congress might be renewed; and 

Whereas it is now officially made known to me that the said orders 
m council have not been withdrawn agreeably to the communication 
and declaration aforesaid: 

I do hereby proclaim the same, and, consequently, that the trade 
renewable on the event of the said orders, being withdrawn, is to be 
considered as under the operation of the several acts by which such 
trade was suspended. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. NOVEMBER 29, 1809. 

I had the satisfaction of communicating an adjustment with one of 
the principal belligerent nations, highly important in itself, and still 



JAMES Madison. 115 

more so as presaging a more extended accommodation. The favorable 
prospect has been overclouded by a refusal of the British Government 
to abide by the act of its minister plenipotentiary, and by its ensuing 
policy toward the United States. 

The recall of the disavowed minister having been followed by the 
appointment of a successor, hopes were indulged that the new mission 
would contribute to alleviate the disappointment which had been pro- 
duced, and to remove the causes which had so long embarrassed the 
good understanding of the two nations. It could not be doubted that 
it would at least be charged with conciliatory explanations of the step 
which had been taken and with proposals to be substituted for the 
rejected arrangement. Reasonable and universal as this expectation 
was, it also has not been fulfilled. From the first official disclosures of 
the new minister it was found that he had received, no authority to 
enter into explanations relative to either branch of the arrangement 
disavowed nor any authority to substitute proposals as to that branch 
which concerned the British orders in council, and, finally, that his 
proposals with respect to the other branch, the attack on the frigate 
" Chesapeake," were founded on a presumption repeatedly declared to 
be inadmissible by the United States, that the first step toward ad- 
justment was due from them, the proposals at the same time omitting 
even a reference to the officer answerable for the murderous aggres- 
sion, and asserting a claim not less contrary to the British laws and 
British practice than to the principles and obligations of the United 
States. 

The correspondence between the Department of State and this 
minister will show how unessentially the features presented in its 
commencement have been varied in its progress. It will show also 
that, forgetting the respect due to all governments, he did not refrain 
from imputations on this, which required that no further communica- 
tions should be received from him. The necessity of this step will be 
made known to His Britannic Majesty through the minister pleni- 
potentiary of the United States in London; and it would indicate a 
want of the confidence due to a Government which so well under- 
stands and exacts what becomes foreign ministers near it not to infer 
that the misconduct of its own representative will be viewed in the 
same light in which it has been regarded here. 

With France, the other belligerent, whose trespasses on our com- 
mercial rights have long been the subject of our just remonstrances, 



ii6 History of the United States. 

the posture of our relations does not correspond with the measures 
taken on the part of the United States to effect a favorable change. 

The sums which had been previously accumulated in the Treasury, 
together with tlie receipts during the year ending on the 30th of Sep- 
tember last (and amounting to more than $9,000,000), have enabled 
us to fulfill all our engagements and to defray the current expenses of 
Government without recurring to any loan. 



Whereas the territory south of the Mississippi Territory and east- 
ward of the river Mississippi, and extending to the river Perdido, of 
which possession was not delivered to the United States in pursuance 
of the treaty concluded at Paris on the 30th April, 1803, has at all 
times, as is well known, been considered and claimed by them as 
being within the colony of Louisiana conveyed by the said treaty in 
the same extent that it had in the hands of Spain and that it had 
when France originally possessed it; and 

Whereas the acquiescence of the United States in the temporary 
continuance of the said territory under the Spanish authority was not 
the result of any distrust of their title, as has been particularly evinced 
by the general tenor of their laws and by the distinction made in the 
application of those laws between that territory and foreign countries, 
but was occasioned by their conciliatory views and by a confidence in 
the justice of their cause and in the success of candid discussion and 
amicable negotiation with a just and friendly power; and 

Whereas a satisfactory adjustment, too long delayed, without the 
fault of the United States, has for some time been entirely suspended 
by events over which they had no control; and 

Whereas a crisis has at length arrived subversive of the order of 
things under the Spanish authorities, wherebv a failure of the United 
States to take the said territory into its possession may lead to events 
ultimately contravening the views of both parties, whilst in the mean- 
time the tranquillity and security of our adjoining territories are en- 
dangered and new facilities given to violations of our revenue and 
commercial laws and of those prohibiting the introduction of slaves; 

Considering, moreover, that under these peculiar and imperative 
circumstances a forbearance on the part of the United States to occupy 
the territory in question, and thereby guard against the confusions 



James Madison. 117 

and contingencies which threaten it, might be construed into a dere- 
liction of their title or an insensibility to the importance of the stake ; 
considering that in the hands of the United States it will not cease 
to be a subject of fair and friendly negotiation and adjustment; con- 
sidering, finally, that the acts of Congress, though contemplating a 
present possession by a foreign authority, have contemplated also 
an eventual possession of the said territory by the United States, 
and are accordingly so framed as in that case to extend in their opera- 
tion to the same: 

Now be it known that I, James Madison, President of the United 
States of America (October 27, 1810), in pursuance of these weighty 
and urgent considerations, have deemed it right and requisite that 
possession should be taken of the said territory in the name and behalf 
of the United States. William C. C. Claiborne, governor of the 
Orleans Territory, of which the said Territory is to be taken as part, 
will accordingly proceed to execute the same and to exercise over the 
said Territory the authorities and functions legally appertaining to his 
office; and the good people inhabiting the same are invited and en- 
joined to pay due respect to him in that character, to be obedient to 
the laws, to maintain order, to cherish harmony, and in every manner 
to conduct themselves as peaceable citizens, under full assurance that 
they will be protected in the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and 
religion. 

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE, NOVEMBER 5, 181I. 

Among the occurrences produced by the conduct of British ships of 
war hovering on our coasts was an encounter between one of them 
and the American frigate commanded by Captain Rodgers, rendered 
unavoidable on the part of the latter by a fire commenced without 
cause by the former, whose commander is therefore alone chargeable 
with the blood unfortunately shed in maintaining the honor of the 
American flag. The proceedings of a court of inquiry requested by 
Captain Rodgers are communicated, together with the correspond- 
ence relating to the occurrence, between the Secretary of State and His 
Britannic Majesty's envoy. To these are added the several corre- 
spondence which have passed on the subject of the British orders in 
council, and to both the correspondence relating to the Floridas, in 
which Congress will be made acquainted with the interposition which 
the Government of Great Britain has thought proper to make against 
the proceeding of the United States. 



Ii8 History of the United States. 

The justice and fairness which have been evinced on the part of 
the United States toward France, both before and since the revocation 
of her decrees, authorized an expectation that her Government would 
have followed up that measure by all such others as were due to our 
reasonable claims, as well as dictated by its amicable professions. No 
proof, however, is yet given of an intention to repair tlie other wrongs 
done to the United States, and particularly to restore the great 
amount of American property seized and condemned under edicts 
which, though not afifecting our neutral relations, and therefore not 
entering into questions between the United States and other bel- 
ligerents, were nevertheless founded in such unjust principles that 
the reparation ought to have been prompt and ample. 

In addition to this and other demands of strict right on that nation, 
the United States have much reason to be dissatisfied with the 
rigorous and unexpected restrictions to which their trade with the 
French dominions has been subjected, and which, if not discontinued, 
will require at least corresponding restrictions on importations from 
France into the United States. 

On all those subjects our minister plenipotentiary lately sent to 
Paris has carried with him the necessary instructions, and, by ascer- 
taining the ulterior policy of the French Government toward the 
United States, will enable you to adapt to it that of the United 
States toward France. 

Our other foreign relations remain without unfavorable changes. 
With Russia they are on the best footing of friendship. The ports 
of Sweden have afforded proofs of friendly dispositions toward our 
commerce in the councils of that nation also, and the information from 
our special minister to Denmark shows that the mission had been 
attended with valuable effects to our citizens, whose property had 
been so extensively violated and endangered by cruisers under the 
Danish flag. 

I must now add that the period is arrived which claims from the 
legislative guardians of the national rights a system of more ample 
provisions for maintaining them. Notwithstanding the scrupulous 
justice, the protracted moderation, and the multiplied efforts on the 
part of the United States to substitute for the accumulating dangers 
to the peace of the two countries all the mutual advantages of re- 
established friendship and confidence, we have seen that the British 
Cabinet perseveres not only in withholding a remedy for other wrongs, 
so long and so loudly calling for it, but in the execution, brought 



James Madison. 119 

home to the threshold of our territory, of measures which under ex- 
isting circumstances have the character as well as the effect of war 
on our lawful commerce. 

With this evidence of hostile inflexibility in trampling on rights 
which no independent nation can relinquish, Congress will feel the duty 
of putting the United States into an armor and an attitude de- 
manded by the crisis, and corresponding with the national spirit and 
expectations. 

I recommend that adequate provision be made for filling the ranks 
and prolonging the enlistments of the regular troops ; for an auxiliary 
force to be engaged for a more limited term; for the acceptance of 
volunteer corps, whose patriotic ardor may court a participation in 
urgent services; for detachments as they may be wanted of other por- 
tions of the militia, and for such a preparation of the great body as 
will proportion its usefulness to its intrinsic capacities. 

The manufacture of cannon and small arms has proceeded with 
due success, and the stock and resources of all the necessary munitions 
are adequate to emergencies. It will not be inexpedient, however, for 
Congress to authorize an enlargement of them. 

The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th 
of September last have exceeded $13,500,000, and have enabled us to 
defray the current expenses, including the interest on the public debt, 
and to reimburse more than $5,000,000 of the principal without re- 
curring to the loan authorized by the act of the last session. The 
temporary loan obtained in the latter end of the year 1810 has also 
been reimbursed, and is not included in that amount. 



At the request of the convention assembled in the Territory of 
Orleans on the 226. day of November, 181 1, I transmit (March 3, 1812) 
to Congress the proceedings of that body in pursuance of the act 
entitled " An act to enable the people of the Territory of Orleans to 
form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of 
the said State into the Union on an equal footing with the original 
States, and for other purposes." 

Without going back beyond the renewal in 1803 of the war in which 
Great Britain is engaged, and omitting unrepaired wrongs of inferior 
magnitude, the conduct of her Government presents a series of acts 
hostile to the United States as an independent and neutral nation. 



120 History of the United States. 

British cruisers have been in the continued practice of violating 
the American flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing and 
carrying off persons saihng under it, not in the exercise of a bel- 
ligerent right founded on the law of nations against an enemy, but of 
a municipal prerogative over British subjects. British jurisdiction 
is thus extended to neutral vessels in a situation where no laws can 
operate but the law of nations and the laws of the country to which 
the vessels belong, and a self-redress is assumed which, if British 
subjects were wrongfully detained and alone concerned, is that sub- 
stitution of force for a resort to the responsible sovereign which falls 
within the definition of war. Could the seizure of British subjects in 
such cases be regarded as within the exercise of a belligerent right, the 
acknowledged laws of war, which forbid an article of captured property 
to be adjudged without a regular investigation before a competent 
tribunal, would imperiously demand the fairest trial where the sacred 
rights of persons were at issue. In place of such a trial these rights 
are subjected to the will of every petty commander. 

The practice, hence, is so far from affecting British subjects alone 
that, under the pretext of searching for these, thousands of American 
citizens, under the safeguard of public law and of their national flag, 
have been torn from their country and from everything dear to them; 
have been dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation and 
exposed, under the severities of their discipline, to be exiled to the 
most distant and deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their 
oppressors, and to be the melancholy instruments of taking away 
those of their own brethren, 

British cruisers have been in the practice also of violating the rights 
and the peace of our coasts. They hover over and harass our entering 
and departing commerce. To the most insulting pretensions they 
have added the most lawless proceedings in our very harbors, and have 
wantonly spilt American blood within the sanctuary of our territorial 
jurisdiction. The principles and rules enforced by that nation, when 
a neutral nation, against armed vessels of belligerents hovering near 
her coasts and disturbing her commerce are well known. When 
called on, nevertheless, by the United States to punish the greater 
ofTenses committed by her own vessels, her Government has bestowed 
on their commanders additional marks of honor and confidence. 

Not content with these occasional expedients for laying waste our 
neutral trade, the Cabinet of Britain resorted at length to the sweeping 
system of blockades, under the name of orders in council, which has 



James Madison. 121 

been molded and managed as might best suit its political views, its 
commercial jealousies, or the avidity of British cruisers. 

In reviewing the conduct of Great Britain toward the United States 
our attention is necessarily drawn to the warfare just renewed by the 
savages on one of our extensive frontiers — a warfare which is known 
to spare neither age nor sex and to be distinguished by features 
peculiarly shocking to humanity. It is difficult to account for the 
activity and combinations which have for some time been developing 
themselves among tribes in constant intercourse with British traders 
and garrisons without connecting their hostility with that influence 
and without recollecting the authenticated examples of such inter- 
positions heretofore furnished by the officers and agents of that 
Government. 

We behold, in fine, on the side of Great Britain a state of war 
against the United States, and on the side of the United States a 
state of peace toward Great Britain. 

Whether the United States shall continue passive under these pro- 
gressive usurpations and these accumulating wrongs, or, opposing 
force to force in defense of their national rights, is a solmn question 
which the Constitution wisely confides to the legislative department 
of the Government. In recommending it to their early deliberations 
I am happy in the assurance that the decision will be worthy the en- 
lightened and patriotic councils of a virtuous, a free, and a powerful 
nation. 



Whereas the Congress (June 19, 1812) of the United States, by 
virtue of the constituted authority vested in them, have declared by 
their act bearing date the i8th day of June, 1812, the present month, 
that war exists between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland and the dependencies thereof and the United States of 
America and their Territories: 

Now, therefore, I, Jame" Madison, President of the United States 
of America, do hereby proclaim the same to all whom it may concern ; 
and I do specially enjoin on all persons holding offices, civil or mili- 
tary, under the authority of the United States that they be vigilant 
and zealous in discharging the duties respectively incident thereto; 
and I do moreover exhort all the good people of the United States, as 
they love their countrv, as they value the precious heritage derived 



122 History of the United States. 

from the virtue and valor of their fathers, as they feel the wrongs 
which liave forced on them the last resort of injured nations, and as 
they consult the best means under the blessing of Divine Providence 
of abridging its calamities, that they exert themselves in preserving 
order, in promoting concord, in maintaining the authority and efficacy 
of the laws, and in supporting and invigorating all the measures 
which may be adopted by the constituted authorities for obtaining 
a speedy, a just, and an honorable peace. 

fourth annual message, NOVEMBER 4, l8l2. 

Our expectation of gaining the command of the Lakes by the in- 
vasion of Canada from Detroit having been disappointed, measures 
were instantly taken to provide on them a naval force superior to 
that of the enemy. From the talents and activity of the officer charged 
with this object everything that can be done may be expected. 

On the coasts and on the ocean the war has been as successful as 
circumstances inseparable from its early stages could promise. Our 
public ships and private cruisers, by their activity, and, where there 
was occasion, by their intrepidity, have made the enemy sensible of 
the difiference between a reciprocity of captures and the long confine- 
ment of them to their side. Our trade, with little exception, has 
safely reached our ports, having been much favored in it by the course 
pursued by a squadron of our frigates under the command of Com- 
modore Rodgers, and in the instance in which skill and bravery were 
more particularly tried with tlioee of the enemy the American flag 
had an auspicious triumph. The frigate " Constitution," commanded 
by Captain Hull, after a close and short engagement completely dis- 
abled and captured a British frigate, gaining for that officer and all on 
board a praise which can not be too liberally bestowed, not merely 
for the victory actually achieved, but for that prompt and cool exertion 
of commanding talents which, giving to courage its highest character, 
and to the force applied its full effect, proved that more could have 
been done in a contest requiring more. 

Tlie propositions for an armistice which have been received here, 
one of them from the authorities at Halifax and in Canada, the other 
from the British Government itself through Admiral Warren, but on 
grounds on which neither of them could be accepted. 

The final communications from our special minister to Denmark 
afford further proofs of the good effects of his mission, and of the 
amicable disposition of the Danish Government. From Russia we 



James Madison. 123 

have the satisfaction to receive assurances of continued friendship, 
and that it will not be affected by the rupture between the United 
States and Great Britain. Sweden also professes sentiments favorable 
to the subsisting harmony. 

The Indian tribes not under foreign instigations remain at peace, 
and receive the civilizing attentions which have proved so beneficial 
to them. 

The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th 
of September last (1812) have exceeded $16,500,000, which have been 
suflficient to defray all the demands on the Treasury to that day, includ- 
ing a necessary reimbursement of near three millions of the principal 
of the public debt. In these receipts is included a sum of near 
$5,850,000 received on account of the loans authorized by the acts of 
the last session; the whole sum actually obtained on loan amounts 
to $11,000,000, the residue of which, being receivable subsequent to 
the 30th of September last, will, together with the current revenue, 
enable us to defray all the expenses of this year. 

SECOND INAUGURAL, MARCH 4, 1813. 

About to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligation imposed by 
a second call to the station in which my country heretofore placed 
me, I find the impressions on me are strengthened by such an evidence 
that my faithful endeavors to discharge my arduous duties have 
been favorably estimated, and by a consideration of the momentous 
period at which the trust has been renewed. 

At an early day (May 25, 1813) after the close of the last session 
of Congress an offer was formally communicated from His Imperial 
Majesty the Emperor of Russia of his mediation, as the common 
friend of the United States and Great Britain, for the purpose of 
facilitating a peace between them. The high character of the Emperor 
Alexander being a satisfactory pledge for the sincerity and impartiality 
of his ofifer, it was immediately accepted, and as a further proof of 
the disposition on the part of the United States to meet their adversary 
in honorable experiments for terminating the w^ar it was determined 
to avoid intermediate delavs incident to the distance of the parties by 
a definitive provision for the contemplated negotiation. Three of our 
eminent citizens were accordingly commissioned with the requisite 
powers to conclude a treaty of peace with persons clothed with like 
powers on the part of Great Britain. Tliey are authorized also to 
enter into such conventional regulations of the commerce between 



1^4 History of the United States. 

the two countries as may be mutually advantageous. The two envoys 
who were in the United States at the time of their appointment have 
proceeded to join their colleague already at St. Petersburg. 

I transmit (December ii, 1812) to Congress copies of a letter to the 
Secretary A the Navy from Captain Decatur, of the frigate " United 
States," reporting his combat and capture of the British frigate " Mace- 
donian." Too much praise can not be bestowed on that officer and 
his companions on board for the consummate skill and conspicuous 
valor by which this trophy has been added to the naval arms of the 
United States. 

I transmit also a letter from Captain Jones, who commanded the 
sloop of war " Wasp," reporting his capture of the British sloop of war 
" Frolic," after a close action, in which other brilliant titles will be 
seen to the public admiration and praise. 

A nation feeling what it owes to itself and to its citizens could 
never abandon to arbitrary violence on the ocean a class of them which 
give such examples of capacity and courage in defending their rights 
on that element, examples which ought to impress on the enemy, how- 
ever brave and powerful, preference of justice and peace to hostility 
against a country whose prosperous career may be accelerated but 
can not be prevented by the assaults made on it. 

I lay before Congress (February 22, 181 3) a letter with accompany- 
ing documents, from Captain Bainbridge, now commanding the 
United States frigate " Constitution," reporting his capture and de- 
struction of the British frigate " Java." The circumstances and the 
issue of this combat afiford another example of the professional skill 
and heroic spirit which prevail in our naval service. The signal dis- 
play of both by Captain Bainbridge, his officers and crew, commands 
the highest praise. 

This being a second instance in which the condition of the captured 
ship, by rendering it impossible to get her into port, has barred a 
contemplated reward of successful valor, I recommend to the con- 
sideration of Congress the equity and propriety of a general provision 
allowing in such cases, both past and future, a fair proportion of the 
value which would accrue to the captors on the safe arrival and sale 
of the prize. 

FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE. DECEMBER "/ , 1813. 

It was a just expectation, from the respect due to the distinguished 
Sovereign who had invited them by his offer of mediation, from the 



James Madison. 125 

readiness with which the invitation was accepted on the part of the 
United States, and from the pledge to be found in an act of their 
Legislature for the liberality which their plenipotentiaries would carry 
into the negotiations, that no time would be lost by the British Govern- 
ment in embracing the experiment for hastening a stop to the effusion 
of blood. 

The British cabinet, either mistaking our desire of peace for a dread 
of British power or misled by other fallacious calculations, has dis- 
appointed this reasonable anticipation. No connnunications from our 
envoys having reached us, no information on the subject has been 
received from that source; but it is known that the mediation was 
declined. 

Under such circumstances a nation proud of its rights and conscious 
of its strength has no choice but an exertion of the one in support 
of the other. 

On Lake Erie, the squadron under command of Captain Perry 
having met the British squadron of superior force, a sanguinary 
conflict ended in the capture of the whole. The conduct of that officer, 
adroit as it was daring, and which was so well seconded by his com- 
rades, justly entitles them to the admiration and gratitude of their 
country, and will fill an early page in its naval annals with a victory 
never surpassed in luster, however much it may have been in magni- 
tude. 

The success on Lake Erie having opened a passage to the territory 
of the enemy, the officer commanding the Northwestern army trans- 
ferred the war thither, and rapidly pursuing the hostile troops, fleeing 
with their savage associates, forced a general action, which quickly 
terminated in the capture of the British and dispersion of the savage 
force. 

This result is signally honorable to Major-General Harrison, by 
whose military talents it was prepared; to Colonel Johnson and his 
mounted volunteers, whose impetuous onset gave a decisive blow to 
the ranks of the enemy, and to the spirit of the volunteer militia, 
equally brave and patriotic, who bore an interesting part in the scene. 

The effect of these successes has been to rescue the inhabitants of 
Michigan from their oppressions. 

The cruelty of the enemy in enlisting the savages into a war with 
a nation desirous of mutual emulation in mitigating its calamities has 
not been confined to any one quarter. Wherever they could be turned 



126 History of the United States. 

against us no exertions to effect it have been spared. On our south- 
western border the Creek tribes, who, yielding to our persevering 
endeavors, were gradually acquiring more civilized habits, became the 
unfortunate victims of seduction. A war in that quarter has been the 
consequence, infuriated by a bloody fanaticism recently propagated 
among them. It was necessary to crush such a war before it could 
spread among the contiguous tribes and before it could favor enter- 
prises of the enemy into that vicinity. With this view a force was 
called into the service of the United States from the States of Georgia 
and Tennessee, which, with the nearest regular troops and other corps 
from the Mississippi Territory, might not only chastise the savages 
into present peace but make a lasting impression on their fears. 

The progress of the expedition, as far as is yet known, corresponds 
with the martial zeal with which it was espoused, and the best hopes 
of a satisfactory issue are authorized by the complete success with 
which a well-planned enterprise was executed against a body of hostile 
savages by a detachment of the volunteer militia of Tennessee, under 
the gallant command of General Cofifee, and by a still more important 
victory over a larger body of them, gained under the immediate com- 
mand of jN.Iajor-General Jackson, an officer equally distinguished for 
his patriotism and his military talents. 

The attacks of the enemy on Craney Island, on Fort Meigs, on 
Sacketts Harbor, and on Sandusky have been vigorously and success- 
fully repulsed; nor have they in any case succeeded on either frontier 
excepting when directed against the peaceable dwelling of individuals 
or villages unprepared or undefended. 

On the other hand, the movements of the American Army have 
been followed by the reduction of York, and of Forts George, Erie, 
and Maiden; by the recovery of Detroit and the extinction of the 
Indian war in the West, and by the occupancy or command of a large 
portion of Upper Canada. Battles have also been fought on the 
borders of the St. Lawrence, which, though not accomplishing their 
entire objects, reflect honor on the discipline and prowess of our 
soldiery, the best auguries of eventual victory. 

If the war has increased the interruptions of our commerce, it has 
at the same time cherished and multiplied our manufactures so as to 
make us independent of all other countries for the more essential 
branches for which we ought to be dependent on none, and is even 
rapidly giving them an extent which will create additional staples 
in our future intercourse with foreign markets. 



James Madison. 127 



SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, SEPTEMBER 20, 1814. 

On our side we can appeal to a series of achievements which have 
given new luster to the American arms. Besides the brilliant incidents 
in the minor operations of the campaign, the splendid victories gained 
on the Canadian side of the Niagara by the American forces under 
Major-General Brown and Brigadiers Scott and Gaines have gained 
for these heroes and their emulating companions the most unfading 
laurels, and, having triumphantly tested the progressive discipline of 
the American soldiery, have taught the enemy that the longer he 
protracts his hostile efforts the more certain and decisive will be his 
final discomfiture. 

On our southern border victory has continued also to follow the 
American standard. The bold and skillful operations of Major- 
General Jackson, conducting troops drawn from the militia of the 
States least distant, particularly of Tennessee, have subdued the prin- 
cipal tribes of hostile savages, and, by establishing a peace with them, 
preceded by recent and exemplary chastisement, has best guarded 
against the mischief of their co-operation with the British enterprises 
which may be planned against that quarter of our country. Important 
tribes of Indians on our northwestern frontier have also acceded to 
stipulations which bind them to the interests of the United States and 
to consider our enemy as theirs also. 

In the recent attempt of the enemy on the city of Baltimore, de- 
fended by militi'a and volunteers, aided by a small body of regulars 
and seamen, he was received with a spirit which produced a rapid 
retreat to his ships, whilst a concurring attack by a large fleet was 
successfully resisted by the steady and well-directed fire of the fort 
and batteries opposed to it. 

In another recent attack by a powerful force on our troops at 
Plattsburg, of which regulars made a part only, the enemy, after a 
perseverance for many hours, was finally compelled to seek safety in a 
hasty retreat, with our gallant bands pressing upon him. 

On the Lakes, so much contested throughout the war, the great 
exertions for the command made on our part have been well repaid. 
On Lake Ontario our squadron is now and has been for some time 
in a condition to confine that of the enemy to his own port, and to 
favor the operations of our land forces on that frontier. 

A part of the squadron on Lake Erie has been extended into Lake 
Huron, and has produced the advantage of displaying our command 



128 History of the United States. 

on that lake also. One object of the expedition was the reduction 
of Mackinaw, which failed with the loss of a few brave men, among 
whom was an officer justly distinguished for his gallant exploits. The 
expedition, ably conducted by both the land and the naval com- 
manders, was otherwise highly valuable in its effects. 

On Lake Champlain, where our superiority had for some time been 
undisputed, the British squadron lately came into action with the 
American, commanded by Captain Macdonough. It issued in the 
capture of the whole of the enemy's ships. The best praise for this 
officer and his intrepid comrades is in the likeness of his triumph to 
the illustrious victory which immortalized another officer and estab- 
lished at a critical moment our command of another lake. 

On the ocean the pride of our naval arms had been amply supported. 
A second frigate has indeed fallen into the hands of the enemy, but 
the loss is hidden in the blaze of heroism with which she was defended. 
Captain Porter, who commanded her, and whose previous career had 
been distinguished by daring enterprise and by fertility of genius, 
maintained a sanguinary contest against two ships, one of them 
superior to his own, and under other severe disadvantages, till 
humanity tore down the colors which valor had nailed to the mast. 
This officer and his brave comrades have added much to the rising 
glory of the American flag, and have merited all the effusions of 
gratitude which their country is ever ready to bestow on the champions 
of its rights and of its safety. 

Two smaller vessels of war have also become prizes to the enemy, 
but by a superiority of force which sufficiently vindicates the reputa- 
tion of their commanders, whilst two others, one commanded by 
Captain Warrington, the other by Captain Blakely, have captured 
British ships of the same class with a gallantry and good conduct 
which entitle them and their companions to a just share in the praise 
of their country. 

In spite of the naval force of the enemy accumulated on our coasts, 
our private cruisers also have not ceased to annoy his commerce and 
to bring their rich prizes into our ports, contributing thus, with other 
proofs, to demonstrate the incompetency and illegality of a blockade 
the proclamation of which is made the pretext for vexing and dis- 
couraging the commerce of neutral powers with the United States. 

To meet the extended and diversified warfare adopted by the enemy, 
great bodies of militia have been taken into service for the public 
defense, and great expenses incurred. That the defense everywhere 



James Madison. 129 

may be both more convenient and more economical, Congress will 
see the necessity of immediate measures for filling the ranks of the 
Regular Army and of enlarging the provision for special corps, 
mounted and unmounted, to be engaged for longer periods of service 
than are due from the militia. I earnestly renew, at the same time, a 
recommendation of such changes in the system of the militia as, by 
classing and disciplining for the most prompt and active service the 
portions most capable of it, will give to that great resource for the 
public safety all the requisite energy and efficiency. 

The moneys received into the Treasury during the nine months 
ending on the 30th day of June last amounted to $32,000,000, of which 
near eleven millions were the proceeds of the public revenue and the 
remainder derived from loans. The disbursements for public ex- 
penditures during the same period exceeded $34,000,000, and left in 
the Treasury on the ist day of July near $5,000,000. The demands 
during the remainder of the present year already authorized by Con- 
gress and the expenses incident to an extension of the operations of 
the war will render it necessary that large sums should be provided to 
meet them. 

From this view of the national affairs Congress will be urged to take 
up without delay as well the subject of pecuniary supplies as that of 
military force, and on a scale commensurate with the extent and the 
character which the war has assumed. It is not to be disguised that 
the situation of our country calls for its greatest efforts. Our enemy 
is powerful in men and in money, on the land and on the w^ater. 
Availing himself of fortuitous advantages, he is aiming with his un- 
divided force a deadly blow at our growing prosperity, perhaps at our 
national existence. He has avowed his purpose of trampling Dn the 
usages of civilized warfare, and given earnests of it in the plunder 
and wanton destruction of private property. In his pride of maritime 
dominion and in his thirst of commercial monopoly he strikes with 
peculiar animosity at the progress of our navigation and of our manu- 
factures. His barbarous policy has not even spared those monuments 
of the arts and models of taste with which our country had enriched 
and embellished its infant metropolis. From such an adversary 
hostility in its greatest force and in its worst forms may be looked for. 
The American people will face it with the tmdaunted spirit which in 
their revolutionar}^ struggle defeated his unrighteous projects. 



130 History of the United States. 

I lay before Congress (February 18, 181 5), copies of the treaty of 
peace and amity between the United States and His Britannic Majesty, 
which was signed by the commissioners of both parties at Ghent on 
the 24th of December, 1814. and the ratifications of which have been 
duly exchanged. 

While performing this act I congratulate our constituents upon an 
event which is highly honorable to the nation, and terminates with 
peculiar felicity a campaign signalized by the most brilliant successes. 

Congress will have seen (February 23, 181 5), by the communication 
from the consul-general of the United States at Algiers laid before 
them on the 17th of November, 1812, the hostile proceedings of the 
Dey against that functionary. These have been followed by acts of 
more overt and direct warfare against the citizens of the United States 
trading in the Mediterranean, some of whom are still detained in 
captivity, notwithstanding the attempts which have been made to 
ransom them, and are treated with the rigor usual on the coast of 
Barbary. 

The considerations which rendered it unnecessary and unimportant 
to commence hostile operations on the part of the United States being 
now terminated by the peace with Great Britain, which opens the 
prospect of an active and valuable trade of their citizens within the 
range of the Algerine cruisers, I recommend to Congress the ex- 
pediency of an act declaring the existence of a state of war between 
the Ignited States and the Dey and Regency of Algiers, and of such 
provisions as may be requisite for a vigorous prosecution of it to a 
successful issue. 

seventh annual message, DECEMBER 5, 1815. 

I have the satisfaction of being able to communicate the successful 
termination of the war which had been commenced against the United 
States by the Regency of Algiers. The squadron in advance on that 
service, under Commodore Decatur, lost not a moment after its 
arrival in the Mediterranean in seeking the naval force of the enemy 
then cruising in that sea, and succeeded in capturing two of his ships, 
one of them the principal ship, commanded by the Algerine admiral. 
The high character of the American commander was brilliantly sus- 
tained on the occasion which brought his own ship into close action 
with that of his adversary, as w^as the accustomed gallantry of all the 
ofificers and men actually engaged. Having prepared the way by this 
demonstration of American skill and prowess, he hastened to the port 



JaxMes Monroe. 131 

of Algiers, where peace was promptly yielded to his victorious force. 
In the terms stipulated the rights and honor of the United States were 
particularly consulted by a perpetual relinquishment on the part of 
the Dey of all pretensions to tribute from them. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

JAMES MADISON was born in Orange county, Va., March 16, 
1 75 1. His father, James Madison^ was of English descent and 
one of the early settlers. He was fitted for college by private 
tutors, and in 1769 entered Princeton College, graduating in 1771, 
and remained another year pursuing special studies, after which he re- 
turned to Virginia and began to practice law. He was elected 
member of the General Assembly of Virginia in 1776, and was 
appointed a member of the executive covmcil in 1778. In 
the winter of 1 779-1 780 he was chosen delegate to the Continental 
Congress and continued an active and prominent member till 1784. 
In 1786 the legislature of Virginia appointed him delegate to a 
convention at Annapolis, Md., to devise a system of commercial 
regulations for all the States. Upon their recommendation a con- 
vention of delegates from all the states was held in Philadelphia, 
May, 1787. ]\Ir. Madison was a leading member of this con- 
vention, which framed the Constitution of the United States. He 
was then a member of the convention of his State, which met to con- 
sider the new Constitution for the United States. He was member of 
the House of Representatives in the First Congress, April, 1789, and 
continued in the House during both terms of Washington's admin- 
istration. In 1794 he married Mrs. Dolly Paine Todd of Philadelphia. 
She was the widow of a Pennsylvania lawyer, and daughter of a 
Quaker, who had removed from Virginia to Philadelphia. Mrs. 
Madison was the youngest of the many mistresses of the White House. 
The office of Secretary of State, vacated by Jefiferson in 1793, was 
offered to Madison, which he declined. In 1797 he retired from Con- 
gress, and in 1798 accepted a seat in the Virginia assembly. Presi- 
dent Jefiferson appointed him Secretary of State in 1801, which office 
he held during Jefferson's entire administration. He was elected 
President in 1808, and re-elected in 1812. He retired from public Hfe 
Afarch 4, 1817, and passed the remainder of his life at IMontpelier, 
Orange county, Va., where he died June 28, 1836, and was buried. 



132 



History of the United States. 




HOME OF JAMES MONROE, LOUDON COUNTY, VIRGINIA. 



CHAPTER V. 



MONROE'S GREAT NATIONAL DOCTRINE. 



By John R. Procter, President of the U. S. Civil Service Commission. 



T HAVE been requested to write my opinion as to what act or poUcy will 
ex-President Monroe be best remembered by posterity. 
Public men are remembered not so much for what they are as for what great 
policies or acts their names happen to be associated with. For instance, Mr. 
Gladstone, who has probably been the most conspicuous man in the English- 
speaking world for the last twenty-five years, and who is one of the truly 
great Englishmen, will not be remembered so long as Cecil Rhodes, because 
Cecil Rhodes will stand in the future as one of the great builders of the 
empire. When the great British Federation of South Africa becomes a popu- 
lous and prosperous part of the British Empire, Cecil Rhodes will be looked 



James Monroe. i^o 

upon as the man who originated, organized, and started upon its successful 
career this great country. 

We have all recently witnessed a waning of the hold of Gladstone upon the 
English people. Only a few weeks ago Lord Kitchener asked the British 
public to contribute to the establishment of a school at Khartoum as a 
memorial to Gordon, and almost instantly a half million dollars were sub- 
scribed by the British public, while at the same time a much smaller con- 
tribution was requested for the purpose of building a memorial to Gladstone, 
and the smaller sum has not yet been forthcoming. 

The plain, simple-minded backwoodsman, Daniel Boone, occupies a large 
place in the history of this country, because he first pushed westward into the 
wilderness and established a home for our race beyond the Alleghenies, and 
learned lawyers and statesmen of that tim-; who would have looked down with 
contempt upon the plain pioneer have been forgotten, while Boone is gratefully 
remembered by millions of Americans. 

James Monroe is peculiarly fortunate because his name is associated, first, 
with the great westward extension of our domain beyond the Mississippi, and 
secondly, with the enunciation of a great doctrine which must for all time 
dominate the Western Hemisphere. When President Jefferson saw the neces- 
sity of securing the mQutli of the Mississippi, in order to prevent the western 
backv.-oodsmen from going down the river and forcibly taking possession and 
thus precipitating a war with France — JefTerson being of a conservative and 
somewhat timid nature — attempted to divert this by purchasing from France 
the mouth of that river, and having confidence in the ability of Mr. Monroe, 
he sent him on a special mission to France for this purpose. 

As Napoleon was about to declare war against Great Britain, and knowing 
that the British fleet had weakened the sea power of both France and Spain 
and that it would be almost impossible to hold the mouth of the Mississippi 
river, he was in a frame of mind to treat favorably the proposition made by 
Mr. Monroe and our minister to France, Mr. Livingston. Through their 
combined efforts, but more particularly through the efforts of Mr. Monroe, 
we were enabled to secure for a small sum not only the mouth of the 
Mississippi but the vast territory extending west to the Rocky Mountains; thus 
fixin.? the destiny of this country and making it for all time the dominant 
power in the Western Hemisphere. 

After the crushing defeat of the French and Spanish navies by Nelson at 
Trafalgar, Great Britain was left mistress of the seas, which supremacy, how- 
ever, was disputed in 1812 by the descendants of the sea rovers who had com- 
menced to build a great empire in the Western Hemisphere. The Spanish 
colonies extending from Mexico to Cape Horn had succeeded in throwing ofif 
the Spanish yoke, but European powers, fearing the extension of republican 



134 History of the United States. 

institutions, formed what is known as the " Holy AlHance " with Russia at its 
head, and determined to aid Spain in reconquering her American possessions. 
At this juncture Mr. Canning, the British minister, proposed to the American 
minister at London that the two countries should stand together in resisting, 
if necessary, by force of arms, this interference by European powers in 
American affairs, and assured him that Great Britain would lend efficient aid 
to the United States, if necessary, in preventing this. 

This proposition was forwarded by President Monroe to Mr. Jefferson at 
Monticello, who replied that this was the most important subject brought to 
his notice since the Declaration of Independence, and advised the President to 
accept the " proffered aid of England," and the celebrated Monroe Doctrine, 
which was promulgated by President Monroe in his message of December 2, 
1823, was the result. This doctrine, which never had legislative sanction, has 
been accepted by the American people as a policy which must be enforced, if 
necessary, by a resort to arms, and has also been accepted by some of the 
foreign powers. 

This doctrine was re-enunciated when Napoleon III attempted to put a 
foreign king upon the throne of Mexico, and the United States placed an 
army upon the Mexican border and notified Napoleon that the French troops 
must be withdrawn and the Mexicans must decide for themselves what form of 
government they desired. It was again re-enunciated recently in the Venezuela 
question, and the interpretation put upon it by this Government was accepted 
by England, the only great sea power having anything like an ability to 
dispute it. 

A doctrine like this, which is accepted by the entire population of a great 
country, irrespective of party, is more potent than any mere legislative action, 
and for the enunciation of this great doctrine Monroe must for all times be 
honored as one of the great Americans. 

The potency of this doctrine should be an inspiration to our rulers for future 
times, showing them that great ends may be achieved by the firm and fearless 
enunciation of great doctrines by the President of a great people independent 
of legislative action. It has a material bearing on the tremendous problems 
soon to be solved in the Far East. 




James Monroe. 135 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1817-1825. 



By James Monroe. 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1817. 

I SHOULD be destitute of feeling if I was not deeply afifected by 
the strong proof which my fellow-citizens have given me of 
their confidence in calling me to the high office whose functions 
I am about to assume. 

From the commencement of our Revolution to the present day 
almost forty years have elapsed, and from the establishment of this 
Constitution twenty-eight. Through this whole term the Govern- 
ment has been what may emphatically be called self-government. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 2, 1817. 

An arrangement which had been commenced by my predecessor 
with the British Government for the reduction of the naval force by 
Great Britain and the United States on the Lakes has been concluded, 
by which it is provided that neither party shall keep in service on 
Lake Champlain more than one vessel, on Lake Ontario more than 
one, and on Lake Erie and the upper lakes more than two, to be 
arm.ed each wuth one cannon only, and that all the other armed vessels 
of both parties, of which an exact list is interchanged, shall be dis- 
mantled. It is also agreed that the force retained shall be restricted 
in its duty to the internal purposes of each party, and that the arrange- 
ment shall remain in force until six months shall have expired after 
notice given by one of the parties to the other of its desire that it 
should terminate. By this arrangement useless expense on both sides 
and, what is of still greater importance, the danger of collision between 
armed vessels in those inland waters, which was great, is prevented. 

I have the satisfaction also to state that the commissioners under 
the fourth article of the treaty of Ghent, to whom it was referred to 
decide to which party the several islands in the bay of Passamaquoddy 
belonged under the treaty of 1783, have agreed in a report, by which 



136 History of the United States. 

all the islands in the possession of each party before the late war have 
been decreed to it. The commissioners acting under the other articles 
of the treaty of Ghent for the settlement of boundaries have also been 
engaged in the discharge of their respective duties, but have not yet 
completed them. The difference which arose between the two Govern- 
ments under that treaty respecting the right of the United States to 
take and cure fish on the coasts of the British provinces north of our 
limits, which had been secured by the treaty of 1783, is still in 
negotiation. 

The negotiation with Spain for spoliations on our commerce and the 
settlement of boundaries remains essentially in the state it held. It 
has been evidently the policy of the Spanish Government to keep the 
negotiation suspended, and in this the United States have acquiesced, 
from an amicable disposition toward Spain and in the expectation that 
her Government would, from a sense of justice, finally accede to such 
an arrangement as would be equal between the parties. 

It was anticipated at an early stage that the contest between Spain 
and the colonies would become highly interesting to the United States. 
It was natural that our citizens should sympathize in events which 
affected their neighbors.. It seemed probable also that the prosecu- 
tion of the conflict along our coast and in contiguous countries would 
occasionally interrupt our commerce and otherwise affect the persons 
and property of our citizens. These anticipations have been realized. 
Such injuries have been received from persons acting under authority 
of both the parties, and for which redress has in most instances been 
withheld. Through every stage of the conflict the United States have 
maintained an impartial neutrality, giving aid to neither of the parties 
in men, money, ships, or munitions of war. They have regarded the 
contest not in the light of an ordinary insurrection or rebellion, but 
as a civil war between parties nearly equal, having as to neutral 
powers equal rights. Our ports have been open to both, and every 
article the fruit of our soil or of the industry of our citizens which 
either was permitted to take has been equally free to the other. Should 
the colonies establish their independence, it is proper now to state 
that this Government neither seeks nor would accept from them any 
advantage in commerce or otherwise which will not be equally open 
to all other nations. The colonies will in that event become inde- 
pendent states, free from any obligation to or connection with us 
which it may not then be their interest to form on the basis of a fair 
reciprocity. 




FIFTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



>^- ^ '^" ■' .^^e^jgi-e-M. yi^-ef-ej^ ^^^Le../:^^ ^^^-ty.^^..^.^^^^^^ 




1-^ rC>fe<j' 







.<;>-ifi-tt^0,^^',^^.'' 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE — PAGE FROM PRESIDENT MON- 
ROE'S SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE OF DECEMBER 2. 1823. 



James Monroe. 139 

In the summer of the present year an expedition was set on foot 
against East Florida by persons claiming to act under the authority of 
some of the colonies, who took possession of Amelia Island, at the 
mouth of the St. Marys River, near the boundary of the State of 
Georgia. As this Province lies eastward of the JMississippi, and is 
bounded by the United States and the ocean on every side, and has 
been a subject of negotiation with the Government of Spain as an 
indenmity for losses by spoliation or in exchange for territory of equal 
value westward of the Mississippi, a fact well known to the world, it 
excited surprise that any countenance should be given to this measure 
by any of the colonies. As it would be difficult to reconcile it with 
the friendly relations existing between the United States and the 
colonies, a doubt was entertained whether it had been authorized by 
them, or any of them. This doubt has gained strength by the circum- 
stances which have unfolded themselves in the prosecution of the 
enterprise, which have marked it as a mere private, unauthorized 
adventure. Projected and commenced with an incompetent force, 
reliance seems to have been placed on what might be drawn, in de- 
fiance of our laws, from within our limits; and of late, as their resources 
have failed, it has assumed a more marked character of unfriendliness 
to' us, the island being made a channel for the illicit introduction of 
slaves from Africa into the United States, an asylum for fugitive slaves 
from the neighboring States, and a port for smuggling of every kind. 

A similar establishment was made at an earlier period by persons of 
the same description in the Gulf of ]\Iexico at a place called Galvezton, 
within the limits of the United States, as we contend, under the 
cession of Louisiana. This enterprise has been marked in a more 
signal manner by all the objectionable circumstances which character- 
ized the other, and more particularly by the equipment of privateers 
which have annoyed our commerce, and by smuggling. These estab- 
lishments, if ever sanctioned by any authority whatever, which is not 
believed, have abused their trust and forfeited all claim to considera- 
tion. A just regard for the rights and interests of the United States 
required that they should be suppressed, and orders have been accord- 
ingly issued to that efifect. The imperious considerations which 
produced this measure will be explained to the parties whom it may 
in any degree concern. 

The payments which have been made into the Treasury show the 
very productive state of the public revenue. After satisfying the ap- 
propriations made by law for the support of the civil Government and 



140 History of the United States. 

of the military and naval establishments, embracing suitable pro- 
vision for fortifications and for the gradual increase of the Navy, pay- 
ing the interest of the public debt, and extinguishing more than 
eighteen millions of the principal, within the present year, it is 
estimated that a balance of more than $6,000,000 will remain in the 
Treasury on the ist day of January applicable to the current service of 
the ensuing year. 

The payments into the Treasury during the year 18 18 on account of 
imposts and tonnage, resulting principally from duties which have 
accrued in the present year, may be fairly estimated at $20,000,000; 
the internal revenues at $2,500,000; the public lands at $1,500,000; 
bank dividends and incidental receipts at $500,000; making in the 
whole $24,500,000. 

The annual permanent expenditure for the support of the civil 
Government and of the Army and Navy, as now established by law, 
amounts to $11,800,000, and for the sinking fund to $10,000,000, mak- 
ing in the whole $21,800,000, leaving an annual excess of revenue 
beyond the expenditure of $2,700,000, exclusive of the balance 
estimated to be in the Treasury on the ist day of January, 1818. 

In the present state of the Treasury the whole of the Louisiana debt 
may be redeemed in the year 1819, after which, if the public debt 
continues as it now is, above par, there will be annually about live 
millions of the sinking fund unexpended until the year 1825, when the 
loan of 1 812 and the stock created by funding Treasury notes will be 
redeemable. 

It is also estimated that the Mississippi stock will be discharged 
during the year 1819 from the proceeds of the public lands assigned 
to that object, after which the receipts from those lands will annually 
add to the public revenue the sum of one million and a half, making 
the permanent annual revenue amount to $26,000,000, and leaving an 
annual excess of revenue after the year 1819 beyond the permanent 
authorized expenditure of more than $4,000,000. 

The militia force of the several States may be estimated at 800,000 
men — infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Great part of this force is 
armed, and measures are taken to arm the whole. An improvement in 
the organization and discipline of the militia is one of the great objects 
which claims the unremitted attention of Congress. 

The regular force amounts nearly to the number required by law, 
and is stationed along the Atlantic and inland frontiers. 

Of the naval force it has been necessary to maintain strong 
squadrons in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of Mexico. 



James Monroe. 141 

From several of the Indian tribes inhabiting the country bordering 
on Lake Erie purchases have been made of lands on conditions very 
favorable to the United States, and, as it is presumed, not less so to 
the tribes themselves. 

By these purchases the Indian title, with moderate reservations, has 
been extinguished to the whole of the land within the limits of the 
State of Ohio, and to a part of that in the Michigan Territory and of 
the State of Indiana. From the Cherokee tribe a tract has been pur- 
chased in the State of Georgia and an arrangement made by which, 
in exchange for lands beyond the Mississippi, a great part, if not the 
whole, of the land belonging to that tribe eastward of that river in the 
States of North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, and in the Alabama 
Territory will soon be acquired. By these acquisitions, and others 
that may reasonably be expected soon to follow, we shall be enabled to 
extend our settlements from the inhabited parts of the State of Ohio 
along Lake Erie into the Michigan Territory, and to connect our 
settlements by degrees through the State of Indiana and the Illinois 
Territory to that of Missouri. A similar and equally advantageous 
effect will soon be produced to the south, through the whole extent of 
the States and territory which border on the waters emptying into the 
Mississippi and the Mobile. 

SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE, NOVEMBER 6, 1818. 

Our relations with Spain remain nearly in the state in which they 
were at the close of the last session. The convention of 1802, provid- 
ing for the adjustment of a certain portion of the claims of our citizens 
for injuries sustained by spoliation, and so long suspended by the 
Spanish Government, has at length been ratified by it, but no arrange- 
ment has yet been made for the payment of another portion of like 
claims, not less extensive or well founded, or for other classes of 
claims, or for the settlement of boundaries. These subjects have again 
been brought under consideration in both countries, but no agreement 
has been entered into respecting them. In the meantime events have 
occurred which clearly prove the ill effect of the policy which that 
Government has so long pursued on the friendly relations of the two 
countries, which it is presumed is at least of as much importance to 
Spain as to the L^nited States to maintain. A state of things has 
existed in the Floridas the tendency of which has been obvious to all 
who have paid the slightest attention to the progress of affairs in that 
quarter. Tliroughout the whole of those Provinces to which the 



142 History of the United States. 

Spanish title extends the Government of Spain has scarcely been felt. 
Its authority has been confined almost exclusively to the walls ot 
Pensacola and St. Augustine, within wliich only small garrisons have 
been maintained. 

Adventurers from every country, fugitives from justice, and ab- 
sconding slaves have found an asylum there. Several tribes of Indians, 
strong in the number of their warriors, remarkable for their ferocity, 
and whose settlements extend to our limits, inhabit those Provinces. 
These dififerent hordes of people, connected together, disregarding on 
the one side the authority of Spain, and protected on the other by an 
imaginary line which separates Florida from the United States, have 
violated our laws prohibiting the introduction of slaves, have practiced 
various frauds on our revenue, and committed every kind of outrage 
on our peaceable citizens which their proximity to us enabled them 
to perpetrate. The invasion of Amelia Island last year by a small band 
of adventurers, not exceeding 150 in number, who wrested it from 
the inconsiderable Spanish force stationed there, and held it several 
months, during which a single feeble efifort only was made to recover 
it, which failed, clearly proves how completely extinct the Spanish 
authority had become, as the conduct of those adventurers while in 
possession of the island as distinctly shows the pernicious purposes 
for which their combination had been formed. 

This country had, in fact, become the theater of every species of 
lawless adventure. With little population of its own, the Spanish 
authority almost extinct, and the colonial goverments in a state of 
revolution, having no pretension to it, and sufficiently employed in 
their own concerns, it was in a great measure derelict, and -the object 
of cupidity to every adventurer. A system of buccaneering was rapidly 
organizing over it which menaced in its consequences the lawful com- 
merce of every nation, and particularly of the United States, while it 
presented a temptation to every people, on whose seduction its success 
principally depended. In regard to the United States, the pernicious 
efifect of this unlawful combination was not confined to the ocean; the 
Indian tribes have constituted the effective force in Florida. With 
these tribes these adventurers had formed at an early period a con- 
nection with a view to avail themselves of that force to promote their 
own projects of accumulation and aggrandizement. It is to the inter- 
ference of some of these adventurers, in misrepresenting the claims 
and titles of the Indians to land and in practicing on their savage 
propensities, that the Seminole war is principally to be traced. Men 



James Monroe. 143 

who thus connect themselves with savage communities and stimulate 
them to war, which is always attended on their part with acts of 
barbarity the most shocking, deserve to be viewed in a worse light 
than the savages. They would certainly have no claim to an im- 
munity from the punishment which, according to the rules of v/arfare 
practiced by the savages, might justly be inflicted on the savages 
themselves. 

If the embarrassments of Spain prevented her from making an m- 
demnity to our citizens for so long a time from her treasury for their 
losses by spoliation and otherwise, it was always in her power to have 
provided it by the cession of this territory. Of this her Government 
has been repeatedly apprised, and the cession was the more to have 
been anticipated as Spain must have known that in ceding it she 
would in efTect cede what had become of little value to her, and would 
likewise relieve herself from the important obligations secured by the 
treaty of 1795 and all other compromitments respecting it. If the 
United States, from consideration of these embarrassments, declined 
pressing their claims in a spirit of hostility, the motive ought at least 
to have been duly appreciated by the Government of Spain. It is 
well knov/n to her Government that other powers have made to the 
United States an indemnity for like losses sustained by their citizens 
at the same epoch. 

There is nevertheless a limit beyond which this spirit of amity and 
forbearance can in no instance be justified. If it was proper to rely 
on amicable negotiation for an indemnity for losses, it would not have 
been so to have permitted the inability of Spain to fulfill her engage- 
ments and to sustain her authority in the Floridas to be perverted by 
foreign adventurers and savages to purposes so destructive to the 
lives of our fellow-citizens and the highest interests of the United 
States. The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most 
sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals, and whether 
the attack be made by Spain herself or by those who abuse her power, 
its obligation is not the less strong. The invaders of Amelia Island 
had assumed a popular and respected title under which they might 
approach and wound us. As their object was distinctly seen, and the 
duty imposed on the Executive by an existing law was profoundly 
felt, that mask was not permitted to protect them. It was thought 
incumbent on the United States to suppress the establishment, and it 
was accordingly done. The combination in Florida for the unlawful 
purposes stated, the acts perpetrated by that combination, and, above 



144 HiSTOKV OF THE UNITED StATES. 

all, the incitement of the Indians to massacre our fellow-citizens of 
every age and of both sexes, merited a like treatment and received it. 
In pursuing- these savages to an imaginary line in the woods it would 
have been the height of folly to have suffered that line to protect 
them. Had that been done the war could never cease. Even if the 
territory had been exclusively that of Spain and her power complete 
over it, we had a right by the law of nations to follow the enemy on 
it and to subdue him there. But the territory belonged, in a certain 
sense at least, to the savage enemy who inhabited it; the power of 
Spain had ceased to exist over it, and protection was sought under her 
title by those who had committed on our citizens hostilities which she 
was bound by treaty to have prevented, but had not the power to 
prevent. To have stopped at that line would have given new en- 
couragement to these savages and new vigor to the whole combination 
existing there in the prosecution of all its pernicious purposes. 

In suppressing the establishment at Amelia Island no unfriendliness 
was manifested toward Spain, because the post was taken from a force 
which had wrested it from her. The measure, it is true, was not 
adopted in concert with the Spanish Government or those in authority 
under it, because in transactions connected with the war in which 
Spain and the colonies are engaged it was thought proper in doing 
justice to the United States to maintain a strict impartiality toward 
both the belligerent parties without consulting or acting in concert 
with either. It gives me pleasure to state that the Governments of 
Buenos Ayres and Venezuela, whose names were assumed, have ex- 
plicitly disclaimed all participation in those measures, and even the 
knowledge of them until communicated by this Government, and have 
also expressed their satisfaction that a course of proceedings had been 
suppressed which if justly imputable to them would dishonor their 
cause. 

In authorizing Major-General Jackson to enter Florida in pursuit 
of the Seminoles care was taken not to encroach on the rights of 
Spain. I regret to have to add that in executing this order facts were 
disclosed respecting the conduct of the ofificers of Spain in authority 
there in encouraging the war, furnishing munitions of war and other 
supplies to carry it on, and in other acts not less marked which evinced 
their participation in the hostile purposes of that combination and 
justified the confidence with which it inspired the savages that bv 
those ofiFicers thev would be protected. A conduct so incompatible 
with the friendly relations existing between the two countries, par- 



James Monroe. 145 

ticularly with the positive obligation of the fifth article of the treaty 
of 1795, by which Spain was bound to restrain, even by force, those 
savages from acts of hostility against the United States, could not fail 
to excite surprise. The commanding general was convinced that he 
should fail in his object, that he should in effect accomplish nothing, 
if he did not deprive those savages of the resource on which they had 
calculated and of the protection on which they had relied in making 
the war. As all the documents relating to this occurrence will be 
laid before Congress, it is not necessary to enter into further detail 
respecting it. 

Although the reasons which induced Alajor-General Jackson to 
take these posts were duly appreciated, there was nevertheless no 
hesitation in deciding on the course which it became the Government 
to pursue. As there was reason to believe that the commanders of 
these posts had violated their instructions, there was no disposition 
to impute to their Government a conduct so unprovoked and hostile. 
An order was in consequence issued to the general in command there 
to deliver the posts — Pensacola unconditionally to any person duly 
authorized to receive it, and St. Marks, which is in the heart of the 
Indian country, on the arrival of a competent force to defend it against 
those savages and their associates. 

In entering Florida to suppress this combination no idea was enter- 
tained of hostility to Spain, and however justifiable the commanding 
general was, in consequence of the misconduct of the Spanish officers, 
in entering St. Marks and Pensacola to terminate it by proving to 
the savages and their associates that they should not be protected 
even there, yet the amicable relations existing between the United 
States and Spain could not be altered by that act alone. By ordering 
the restitution of the posts those relations were preserved. To a 
change of them the power of the Executive is deemed incompetent; it 
is vested in Congress only. 

By this measure, so promptly taken, due respect was shown to the 
Government of Spain. The misconduct of her ofificers has not been 
imputed to her. She was enabled to review with candor her relations 
with the United States and her own situation, particularly in respect 
to the territory in question, with the dangers inseparable from it, and 
regarding the losses v/e have sustained for which indemnity has been 
so long withheld, and the injuries we have suffered through tliat 
territory, and her means of redress, she was likewise enabled to take 
with honor the course best calculated to do justice to the United 
States and to promote her own welfare. 



146 History of the United Statfs. 

The civil war which has so long prevailed between Spain and the 
Provinces in South America still continues, without any prospect of 
its speedy termination. The information respecting the condition of 
those countries which has been collected by the commissioners recently 
returned from thence will be laid before Congress in copies of their 
reports, with such other information as has been received from other 
agents of the United States. 

It appears from these communications that the Government at 
Buenos Ayres declared itself independent in July, 1816, having pre- 
viously exercised the power of an independent government, though 
in the name of the King of Spain, from the year 1810; that the Banda 
Oriental, Entre Rios, and Paraguay, with the city of Santa Fe, all 
of which are also independent, are unconnected with the present 
Government of Buenos Ayres; that Chili has declared itself inde- 
pendent and is closely connected with Buenos Ayres; that Venezuela 
has also declared itself independent, and now maintains the conflict 
with various success; and that the remaining parts of South America, 
except Monte Video and such other portions of the eastern bank of 
the La Plata .as are held by Portugal, are still in the possession of 
Spain or in a certain degree under her influence. 

By a circular note addressed by the ministers of Spain to the allied 
powers, with whom they are respectively accredited, it appears that 
the allies have undertaken to mediate between Spain and the South 
American Provinces, and that the manner and extent of their inter- 
position would be settled by a congress which was to have met at 
Aix-la-Chapelle in September last. From the general policy and 
course of proceeding observed by the allied powers in regard to this 
contest it is inferred that they will confine their interposition to the 
expression of their sentiments, abstaining from the application of 
force. I state this impression that force will not be applied with the 
greater satisfaction because it is a course more consistent with justice 
and likewise authorizes a hope that the calamities of the war will be 
confined to the parties only, and will be of shorter duration. 

From the view taken of this subject, founded on all the information 
that we have been able to obtain, there is good cause to be satisfied 
with the course heretofore pursued by the United States in regard to 
this contest, and to conclude that it is proper to adhere to it, especially 
in the present state of affairs. 

I have great satisfaction in stating that our relations with France, 
Russia, and other powers continue on the most friendly basis. 



James Monroe. 147 

In our domestic concerns we have ample cause of satisfaction. The 
receipts into the Treasury ckiring the three first quarters of the year 
have exceeded $17,000,000. 

After satisfying all the demands which have been made under ex- 
isting appropriations, including the final extinction of the old 6 per 
cent, stock and the redemption of a moiety of the Louisiana debt, it is 
estimated that there will remain in the Treasury on the ist day of 
January next more than $2,000,000. 



It has been necessary during the present year to maintain a strong 
naval force in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of Mexico, and to 
send some public ships along the southern coast and to the Pacific 
Ocean. Bv these means amicable relations with the Barbary Powers 
have been preserved, our commerce has been protected, and our 
rights respected. The augmentation of our Navy is advancing with a 
steady progress toward the limit contemplated by law. 

I communicate with great satisfaction the accession of another 
State (Illinois) to our Union. 

THIRD ANNU.\L MESSAGE. DECEMBER 7, 1819. 

Having informed Congress, on the 27th of February last, that a 
treaty of amity, settlement, and limits had been concluded in this city 
between the United States and Spain, and ratified by the competent 
authorities of the former, full confidence was entertained that it would 
have been ratified by His Catholic Majesty with equal promptitude 
and a like earnest desire to terminate on the conditions of that treaty 
the dififerences which had so long existed between the two countries. 

I regret to have to state that this reasonable expectation has been 
disappointed; that the treaty was not ratified within the time stipulated 
and has not since been ratified. As it is important that the nature 
and character of this unexpected occurrence should be distinctly 
understood, I think it my duty to communicate all the facts relating 
to it. 

Anxious to prevent all future disagreement with Spain by giving the 
most prompt efifect to the treaty which had been thus concluded, and 
particularly by the establishment of a government in Florida which 
should preserve order there, the minister of the United States who had 
been recently appointed to His Catholic Majesty, and to whom the 



148 History of the United States. 

ratification by his Government liad been committed to be exchanged 
for that of Spain, was instructed to transmit the latter to the Depart- 
ment of State as soon as obtained, by a pubhc ship subjected to his 
order for the purpose. Unexpected delay occurring in the ratification 
by Spain, he requested to be informed of the cause. It was stated in 
reply that the great importance of the subject, and a desire to obtain 
explanations on certain points which were not specified, had produced 
the delay, and that an envoy would be dispatched to the United States 
to obtain such explanations of this Government. The minister of the 
United States offered to give full explanation on any point on which 
it might be desired, which proposal was declined. Having com- 
municated this result to the Department of State in August last, he 
was instructed, notwithstanding the disappointment and surprise 
which it produced, to inform the Government of Spain that if the 
treaty should be ratified and transmitted here at any time before the 
meeting of Congress it would be received and have the same effect as 
if it had been ratified in due time. 

In the course which the Spanish Government nave on this occasion 
thought proper to pursue it is satisfactory to know that they have not 
been countenanced by any other European power. On the contrary, 
the opinion and wishes both of France and Great Britain have not 
been withheld either from the United States or from Spain, and have 
not been unequivocal in favor of the ratification. There is also reason 
to believe that the sentiments of the Imperial Government of Russia 
have been the same, and that they have also been made known to the 
cabinet of Madrid. 

In the civil war existing between Spain and the Spanish Provinces 
in this hemisphere the greatest care has been taken to enforce the 
laws intended to preserve an impartial neutrality. Our ports have 
continued to be equally open to both parties and on the same condi- 
tions, and our citizens have been equally restrained from interfering 
in favor of either to the prejudice of the other. The progress of the 
war, however, has operated manifestly in favor of the colonies. 
Buenos Ayres still maintains unshaken the independence which it 
declared in 1816, and has enjoyed since 1810. Like success has also 
lately attended Chili and the Provinces north of the La Plata border- 
ing on it, and likewise Venezuela. 

This contest has from its commencement been very interesting to 
other powers, and to none more so than to the United States. A 
virtuous people may and will confine themselves within the limit of a 



James Monroe. i49 

strict neutrality; but it is not in their power to behold a conflict 
so vitally important to their neighbors, without the sensibility and 
sympathy which naturally belong to such a case. 



FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, NOVEMBER I4, 1820. 

On the 30th of September, 1815, the funded and floating debt of the 
United States was estimated at $119,635,558. If to this sum be added 
the amount of 5 per cent, stock subscribed to the Bank of the United 
States, the amount of Mississippi stock and of the stock which was 
issued subsequently to that date, the balances ascertained to be due to 
certain States for military services and to individuals for supplies fur- 
nished and services rendered during the late war, the public debt 
may be estimated as amounting at that date, and as afterward liqui- 
dated, to $158,713,049. On the 30th of September, 1820, it amounted 
to $91,993,883, having been reduced in that interval by payments 
$66,879,165. During this term the expenses of the Government of the 
United States were likewise defrayed in every branch of the civil, mili- 
tary, and naval establishments; the public edifices in this city have 
been rebuilt with considerable additions; extensive fortifications have 
been commenced, and are in a train of execution; permanent arsenals 
and magazines have been erected in various parts of the Union; 
our Navy has been considerably augmented, and the ordnance, muni- 
tions of war, and stores of the Army and Navy, which were much 
exhausted during the war, have been replenished. 

The treaty (February 22, 1821) of amity, settlement, and limits 
between the United States and Spain, signed on the 22d of February, 
1819, having been ratified by the contracting parties, and the ratifica- 
tions having been exchanged, it is communicated to Congress, that 
such legislative measures may be taken as they shall judge proper for 
carrying the same into execution. 



SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 5, 182I. 

I shall not attempt to describe the grateful emotions -which the 
new and very distinguished proof of the confidence of my fellow- 
citizens, evinced by my re-election to this high trust, has excited in my 
bosom. 



ISO History of the United States. 



FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 3, 182I. 

It is understood that the colonies in South America have had great 
success during the present year in the struggle for their independence. 
The new Government of Colombia has extended its territories and 
considerably augmented its strength, and at Buenos Ayres, where civil 
dissensions had for some time before prevailed greater harmony and 
better order appear to have been established. Equal success has at- 
tended their efforts in the Provinces on the Pacific. It has long been 
manifest that it would be impossible for Spain to reduce these colonies 
by force, and equally so that no conditions short of their independence 
would be satisfactory to them. It may, therefore, be presumed, and 
it is earnestly hoped, that the Government of Spain, guided by en- 
lightened and liberal councils, will find it to comport with its interests 
and due to its magnanimity to terminate this exhausting controversy 
on that basis. To promote this result by friendly counsel with the 
Government of Spain will be the object of the Government of the 
United States. 

SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 3, l822. 

On the 24th of June last a convention of navigation and commerce 
was concluded in this city between the United States and France by 
ministers duly authorized for the purpose. The sanction of the Ex- 
ecutive having been given to this convention under a conviction that, 
taking all its stipulations into view, it rested essentially on a basis of 
reciprocal and equal advantage, I deemed it my duty, in compliance 
with the authority vested in the Executive by the second section of the 
act of the last session of the 6th of May, concerning navigation, to 
suspend by proclamation until the end of the next sesion of Congress 
the operation of the act entitled " An act to impose a new tonnage duty 
on French ships and vessels, and for other purposes," and to suspend 
likewise all other duties on French vessels or the goods imported in 
them which exceeded the duties on American vessels and on similar 
goods imported in them. 

The prohibition which had been imposed on the commerce between 
the United States and the British colonies in the West Indies and on 
this continent has likewise been removed. Satisfactorv evidence hav- 
ing been adduced that the ports of those colonies had been opened to 



James Monroe. 151 

the vessels of the United States by an act of the British Parliament 
bearing date on the 24th of June last, on the conditions specified 
therein, I deemed it proper, in compliance with the provision of the 
iirst section of the act of the last session above recited, to declare, by 
proclamation bearing date on the 24th of August last, that the ports 
of the United States should thenceforward and until the end of the 
next session of Congress be opened to the vessels of Great Britain em- 
ployed in that trade, under the limitation specified in that proclamation. 

In compliance with an act of the last session a Territorial govern- 
ment has been established in Florida on the principles of our system. 
By this act the inhabitants are secured in the full enjoyment of their 
rights and liberties, and to admission into the Union, with equal 
participation in the Government with the original States on the con- 
ditions heretofore prescribed to other Territories. 

When we see that a civil war of the most frightful character rages 
from the Adriatic to the Black Sea; that strong symptoms of v/ar ap- 
pear in other parts, proceeding from causes which, should it break 
out, may become general and be of long duration; that the war still 
continues between Spain and the independent governments, her late 
Provinces, in this hemisphere; that it is likewise menaced between 
Portugal and Brazil, in consequence of the attempt of the latter to dis- 
member itself from the former, and that a system of piracy of great ex- 
tent is maintained in the neighboring seas, which will require equal 
vigilance and decision to suppress it, the reasons for sustaining the at- 
titude which we now hold and for pushing forward all our measures of 
defense with the utmost vigor appear to be to acquire new force. 



SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 2, 1 823. 

The negotiation which had been long depending with the French 
Government on several important subjects, and particularly for a just 
indemnity for losses sustained in the late wars by the citizens of the 
United States under unjustifiable seizures and confiscations of their 
property, has not as yet had the desired elTect. As this claim rests 
on the same principle with others which have been admitted by the 
French Government, it is not perceived on what just ground it can 
be rejected. A minister will be immediately appointed to proceed to 
France and resume the negotiation on this and other subjects which 
mav arise between the two nations. 



i5^ History of the United States. 

At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Government, made through 
the minister of the Emperor residing here, a full power and instruc- 
tions have been transmitted to the minister of the United States at St. 
Petersburg to arrange by amicable negotiation the respective rights 
and interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this con- 
tinent. A similar proposal had been made by His Imperial Majesty 
to the Government of Great Britain, which has likewise been acceded 
to. The Government of the United States has been desirous by this 
friendly proceeding of manifesting the great value which they have 
invariably attached to the friendship of the Emperor and their solici- 
tude to cultivate the best understanding with his Government. In 
the discussions to which this interest has given rise and in the arrange- 
ments by which they n\ay terminate the occasion has been judged 
proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests ot 
the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the 
free and independent condition which they have assumed and main- 
tain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future coloni- 
zation by any European powers. 

Since the close of the last session of Congress the commissioners 
and arbitrators for ascertaining and determining the amount of indem- 
nification which may be due to citizens of the United States under the 
decision of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, in con- 
formity to the convention concluded at St. Petersburg on the 12th 
of July, 1822, have assembled in this city, and organized themselves 
as a board for the performance of the duties assigned to them by that 
treaty. The commission constituted under the eleventh article of the 
treaty of the 22d of February, 1819, between the United States and 
Spain is also in session here, and as the term of three years limited by 
the treaty for the execution of the trust will expire before the period of 
the next regular meeting of Congress, the attention of the Legislature 
will be drawn to the measures which may be necessary to accomplish 
the objects for which the commission w^as instituted. 

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives 
adopted at their last session, instructions have been given to all the 
ministers of the United States accredited to the powers of Europe and 
America to propose the proscription of the African slave trade by 
classing it under the denomination, and inflicting on its perpetrators 
the punishment, of piracv. Should this proposal be acceded to. it 
is not doubted that this odious and criminal practice will be promptly 



James Monroe. 153 

and entirely suppressed. It is earnestly hoped that it will be acceded 
to, from the firm belief that it is the most effectual expedient that can 
be adopted for the purpose. 

At the commencement of the recent war between France and Spain 
it was declared by the French Government that it would grant no 
commissions to privateers, and that neither the commerce of Spain 
herself nor of neutral nations should be molested by the naval force 
of France, except in the breach of a lawful blockade. This declara- 
tion, which appears to have been faithfully carried into effect, con- 
curring with principles proclaimed and cherished by the United States 
from the first establishment of their independence, suggested the hope 
that the time had arrived when the proposal for adopting it as a per- 
manent and invariable rule in all future maritime wars might meet 
the favorable consideration of the great European powers. Instruc- 
tions have accordingly been given to our ministers with France, 
Russia, and Great Britain to make those proposals to their respective 
Governments, and with the friends of humanity reflect on the essential 
amelioration to the condition of the human race which would result 
from the abolition of private war on the sea and on the great facility 
by which it might be accomplished, requiring only the consent of a few 
sovereigns, an earnest hope is indulged that these overtures will meet 
with an attention animated by the spirit in which they were made, and 
that they will ultimately be successful. 

* In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to them- 
selves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our 
policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously 
menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our de- 
fense. With the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity 
more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious 
to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system ot 
the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of 
America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their 
respective Governments; and to the defense of our own, which has 
been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured 
by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we 
have enjoyed unexampled felicitv. this whole nation is devoted. We 
owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing be- 
tween the United States and those powers to declare that we should 

♦ This paragraph of Monroe's seventh annual message is what is now known as the Monroe 
Poc^Tlne. 



154 History of the United States. 

consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any por- 
tion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. 

With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power 
we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Govern- 
ments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and 
whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just prin- 
ciples, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the pur- 
pose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their 
destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the mani- 
festation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. In 
the war between those new Governments and Spain we declared our 
neutrality at the time of their recognition, and to this we have adhered, 
and shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur which, 
in the judgment of the competent authorities of this Government, shall 
make a corresponding change on the part of the United States indis- 
pensable to their security. 

The late events in Spain and Portugal show that Europe is still un- 
settled. Of this important fact no stronger proof can be adduced than 
that the allied powers should have thought it proper, on any principle 
satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed by force in the internal 
concerns of Spain. To what extent such intei-position may be carried, 
on the same principle, is a question in which all independent powers 
whose governments differ from theirs are interested, even those most 
remote, and surely none more so than the United States. Our policy 
in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the w^ars 
which have so long agitated that quarter of the globe, nevertheless 
remains the same, which is. not to interfere in the internal concerns 
of any of its powers; to consider the government dc facto as the legiti- 
mate government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with it, and 
to preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy, meeting 
in all instances the just claims of every power, submitting to injuries 
from none. But in regard to those continents circumstances are 
eminently and conspicuously different. It is impossible that the allied 
powers should extend their political system to any portion of either 
continent without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can any- 
one believe that our southern brethcrn. if left to themselves, would 
adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that 
we should behold such interposition in any form with indifference. 
If we look to the comparative strength and resources of Spain and 
those new Governments, and their distance from each other, it must be 



<^/-*-</^- 



^a,A-/^/^ ^t^^^f,-^/^. ^/^ Z 3 



■^^.^yl^.t:^^^ ^^tr^^ Z^*'-^ ■"^^'-t^.^i^^^^. 




,^ /^' /-i-X^^ >,^^^ ^'--^ ^-^^^ ^^ Z-^^^^H.:^. 






^V' 






;^»-»--Jr 






LETTER OF PRESIDENT MONROE TO A FRIEND, EXPLAINING 
NATIONAL POLICY. 






y^. 



A^^-P^f 



jL^'yi->- /■ 



James Monroe. 157 

obvious that she can never subdue them. It is still the true policy of 
the United States to leave the parties to themselves, in the hope that 
other powers will pursue the same course. 

If we compare the present condition of our Union with its actual 
state at the close of our Revolution, the history of the world furnishes 
no example of a progress in improvement in all the important circum- 
stances which constitute the happiness of a nation which bears any re- 
semblance to it. At the first epoch our population did not exceed 
3,000,000. By the last census it amounted to about 10,000,000, and, 
what is more extraordinary, it is almost altogether native, for the immi- 
gration from other countries has been inconsiderable. At the first epoch 
half the territory within our acknowledged limits was uninhabited 
and a wilderness. Since then new territory has been acquired of vast 
extent, comprising within it many rivers, particularly the Mississippi, 
the navigation of which to the ocean was of the highest importance to 
the original States. Over this territory our population has expanded 
in every direction, and new States have been established almost equal 
in number to those which formed the first bond of our Union. 

EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, 1824. 

Our commerce with Sweden has been placed on a fotting of perfect 
reciprocity by treaty, and with Russia, the Netherlands, Prussia, the 
free Hanseatic cities, the Dukedom of Oldenburg, and Sardinia by in- 
ternal regulations on each side, founded on mutual agreement between 
the respective Governments. 

The principles upon which the commercial policy of the United 
States is founded are to be traced to an early period. They are essen- 
tially connected with those upon which their independence was de- 
clared, and owe their origin to the enlightened men who took the lead 
in our affairs at that important epoch. They are developed in their 
first treaty of commerce with France of 6th February, 1778, and by a 
formal commission which was instituted immediately after the conclu- 
sion of their Revolutionary struggle, for the purpose of negotiating 
treaties of commerce with every European power. The first treaty 
of the United vSlates with Prussia, which was negotiated by that com- 
mission, affords a signal illustration of those principles. The fact of 
Congress of the 3d IMarch, 18 15. adopted immediately after the return 
of a general peace, was a nev/ overture to foreign nations to establish 
our commercial relations with them on the basis of free and equal reci- 



158 History of the United States. 

procity. That principle has pervaded all the acts of Congress and all 
the negotiations of the Executive on the subject since. 

A convention for the settlement of important questions in relation to 
the northwest coast of this continent and its adjoining seas was con- 
cluded and signed at St. Petersburg on the 5th day of April last by 
the minister plenipotentiary of the United .States and plenipotentiaries 
of the Imperial Government of Russia. It is proper to add that the 
manner in which this negotiation was invited and conducted on the 
part of the Emperor has been very satisfactory. 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

JAMES MONROE was born in Westmoreland county, Va., April 
28, 1758. His father was Spence Monroe, and his mother Eliza- 
beth Jones, both natives of Virginia. He enlisted as a private 
soldier in the Army to fight for independence in his eighteenth year. 
He was in several battles and wounded in the engagement at Trenton, 
and promoted to the rank of captain of infantry. He distinguished 
himself as aide to Lord Sterhng during 1777 and 1778. He studied 
law under the direction of Thomas Jefferson, who was then governor 
of Virginia, and who sent him on an important mission to the Army 
in South Carolina in 1780. He was elected to the Virginia assembly 
in the county of King George, in 1782, and made a member of the ex- 
ecutive council. He was a delegate the next year to the Continental 
Congress and remained a member until 1786. While a member he 
married Miss Kortright of New York city. He retired from Congress 
and began to practice law at Fredericksburg, Va., but was at once 
elected to the legislature. He was delegate to the State convention 
assembled to consider the Federal Constitution, in 1788, and was 
Senator from Virginia from 1790 to 1794. Washington appointed 
him minister to France May, 1794. He was recalled 1796 and again 
elected to the legislature. He was elected governor of Virginia in 
1799. In 1802 he was appointed by Jefferson, envoy extraordinary 
to France, and. in 1803, was sent to London to succeed Rufus King. 
He performed a diplomatic mission to Spain, in 1805, relating to the 
boundary of Louisiana, returning to London the following year, and 
to the Ignited States in 1808. He was again elected governor of his 
State in 181 1, and the same year resigned that office to become Secre- 
tary of State under President Madison. After the capture of Washing- 



James Monroe. 159 

ton in 1814 he was appointed to the War Department, which position 
he retained until 1815 witiiout rehnquishnig the office of Secretary of 
State, which he held during Madison's term. He was elected Presi- 
dent in 18 1 6, and re-elected in 1820, retiring to his home in Loudoun 
county, A'a., March 4, 1825. In 1829 he was elected to the conven- 
tion to revise the Constitution of his State, but was forced by ill health 
to retire from office, and removed to New York, to reside with his son- 
in-law, Samuel L. Gouverneur. He died July 4, 1831, and was bur- 
ied in New York city, but his remains w^ere removed, in 1858, to Rich- 
mond, Va. 



i6o 



History of the United States. 



-•' 1^^%, 



/^ 




BIRTHPLACE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 



CHAPTER VI 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, AS AI.VN, SCHOLAR, DIPLOMAT, AND 

STATESMAN. 



By BiNGER Hermann, Cominissiuiier of the General Land Office. 



/'~\ F the long line of illustrious men, who have been honored by the Ameri- 
can people as the Chief Magistrates of the Nation, few are so rarely 
mentioned at the present day as John Quincy Adams. The popular mind pre- 
fers rather to associate the names of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln 
and Grant when reviewing the great Presidents, whose life-works adorn the 
history of our country. Yet, when carefully and impartially studied, either 
as statesman, diplomat or scholar, none stand higher than John Quincy Adams; 
none were longer in active political life or recognized by so many administra- 



John Quincy Adams. i6i 

tions, and none were ever honored with so many exaUed positions, while 
none had greater opportunities for the study of both American and European 
statecraft, or were closer students of or associated with so many great ques- 
tions affecting the creation, the safety, the advancement or the honor and 
glory of our Nation. He was present at its birth. 

Even as a child he heard the cannon booming on Bunker Hill, and saw 
the burning of Charlestown. When but eleven years of age he was taken 
by his distinguished father, afterward President himself, to Paris, where the 
elder Adams was to re-present the United States at the French Court as Com- 
missioner in association with Franklin and Lee, the other Commissioners. 
Here he had the benefit of the elementary French schools. 

When only fourteen years of age, he was removed to St. Petersburg, Russia, 
where he was appointed private secretary to the United States minister to 
Russia, and while so acting also pursued his studies. 

After one year's attention to these duties he determined to visit Stockholm, 
where he remained during one winter and afterward devoted many months in 
travel. At this time, and with all this varied experience he was but sixteen 
years of age. With such an alluring and fascinating career in one so young, 
the disposition and power to undertake and overcome the difficulties, which 
confront every young man, who must later on earn his own livelihood, would 
seem to have been greatly, if not entirely, impaired. Not so, however, with 
young Adams. " I am determined to get my own living and to be dependent 
on no one," were his words. With this resolution he returned to his own land, 
and began his great political career. 

I make the claim now for John Quincy Adams, in view of the confidence 
with which our nation subsequently, in our controversy with England, relied 
upon the advantage of Spain's relinquishment to us, that to him more, per- 
haps, than to any other man are we indebted for the successful negotiations 
which in 1846 recognized the American title to this vast domain, once claimed 
by Spain west of the Rocky Mountains and north of the 426. parallel. So im- 
pressed was Mr. Adams with the far-reaching importance of his great diplo- 
matic victory, known as the Florida Treaty of 1819, that in the last days of 
his long and illustrious life, he would fondly revert to that great event, and 
in his memoirs he says: " I consider the signature of the treaty as the most 
important event in my life. It was an event of magnitude in the history of 
this Union." 

Much of the success of Mr. IMonroe's administration is due to the genius 
and overshadowing influence of John Quincy Adams, as his Secretary of 
State, and the famous declaration of State policy, known as The Monroe Doc- 
trine is quite conclusively traced to the brain and hand of John Quincy Adams. 



i62 History of the United States. 

From first to last Mr. Monroe reposed the most unbounded confidence in his 
far-famed secretary. President Monroe's term coming to a close, the selection 
of a successor was considered. The candidates were General Jackson, John 
Q. Adams, John C. Calhoun, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. Three of 
these eminent men were members of Monroe's Cabinet, while Henry Clay 
v.as Speaker of the House of Representatives. The vote in the electoral college 
resulted in no choice, and the House of Representatives was relied upon to 
decide the contest. Here Mr. Clay gave his support to Mr. Adam"., and ilu- 
latter was elected. Thus again was he fortune's favorite, and this time for the 
highest honor on earth to an American. Commencing at the lowest, he had 
now reached the very highest round in the ladder. If we do not fully ap- 
preciate his eminent powers and his integrity of purpose we shall the more 
marvel at the secret of his success. He was not, in the popular sense, a poli- 
tician. His associations from childhood with the dignity and reserve (.f 
courts made him rather formal and unapproachable to the masses. He was 
quick to condemn, slow to consider the efifects of his shafts, and slower still to 
conciliate those whom he wounded. He was so independent in his make-up as 
to feel that he dishonored himself to solicit a distinction. When asked at 
one time to contribute money towards his own election, he said: " To pay 
money for securing it is in my opinion incorrect in principle." Once again 
he said: " Whatever talents I possess, intrigue is not among them." When 
reminded that unless he exerted himself among his friends and partisans for 
re-election he could not succeed, he replied: " My business is to serve the 
public to the best of my abilities in the station assigned to me, not to in- 
trigue for my own advancement." 

In view of Mr. Clay's support of Mr. Adams it was not a surprise to the 
country when the former was selected as Secretary of State. It gave rise, how- 
ever, to the most slanderous charges. The aid of Mr. Clay in the House was 
considered as a corrupt and well-planned bargain, for which the cabinet ap- 
pointment, which followed, was the consideration, with the further price of 
Adams's support of Clay for the Presidency at the next election. Jackson, 
who was the greatest loser by Clay's coalition with Adams, also openly charged 
the existence of a bargain between the two. So persistently and so plausibly 
was this accusation repeated by Jackson's friends that though demonstrated to 
be untrue, yet, it accomplished its work, and both Clay and Adams lost many 
adherents. With an air of supreme indifference to the assaults upon him, he 
stepped down from his lofty station and returned to private life, there again to 
enter into the active duties of a good citizen. 

It might now be supposed that one who had reigned so 'ong and so glori- 
ously, and suffered so much of the criticism in the bitter partisan warfare of 



John Quincy Adams. 



163 



that time, and especially one of the proud nature of John Quincy Adams, 
would disdain to accept other and lesser honors. But it was different with 
him. He believed and invariably expressed himself that his duty was to his 
country, and, when called upon, he should serve in whatever capacity it might 
be. When, therefore, his admirers suggested to him a desire that he should 
represent his State in Congress he assented, and was accordingly elected as 
a member of the House of Representatives two years after his retirement from 
the Presidency, and he entered upon the trust as cheerfully as though it were 
the first hono: of his life. To this position he was successively elected for 
terms which aggregated seventeen years of active service, and there in his seat, 
in the old hall of the House of Representatives, he was stricken with death at 
his post of duty, February 21, 1848. 

He lived through the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican 
War. He saw his country when it was but a collection of English colonies, 
and at his death he gazed upon it as a free and independent country, and as 
one of the strong and honored nations of the earth. 



164 History of the United States. 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1825-1829. 



By John Quincy Adams. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1825. 

IN compliance with an usage coeval with the existence of our Fed- 
eral Constitution, in unfolding to my countrymen the principles 
by which I shall be governed in the fulfillment of those duties 
my first resort will be to that Constitution which I shall swear to the 
best of my ability to preserve, protect, and defend. The year of jubi- 
lee since the first formation of our Union has just elapsed; that of the 
declaration of our independence is at hand. The consummation of 
lH)th was effected by this Constitution. 

vSince that period a population of four millions has multiplied to 
twelve. A territory bounded by the Mississippi has been extended 
from sea to sea. New States have been admitted to the Union in num- 
bers nearly equal to those of the first Confederation. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMDER 6, 1825. 

The policy of the United States in their commercial intercourse 
with other nations has always been of the most liberal character. In 
the mutual exchange of their respective productions they liave ab- 
stained altogether from prohibitions; they have interdicted themselves 
the power of laying taxes upon exports, and whenever they have 
favored their own shipping by special preferences or exclusive privi- 
leges in their own ports it has been only with a view to countervail 
similar favors and exclusions granted by the nations wnth whom we 
have been engaged in traffic to their own people or shipping, and to 
the disadvantage of ours. Immediately after the close of the last war 
a proposal w^as fairly made by the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 
181 5, to all the maritime nations to lay aside tlie system of retaliating 
restrictions and exclusions, and to place the shipping of both parties 
to the common trade on a footing of equality in respect to the duties 
of tonnage and impost. This offer was partially and successfully ac- 




Jt ^ , cJ^LcUirtyJ 



SIXTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



John Quincy Adams. 167 

cepted by Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Hanseatic cities, 
Prussia, Sardinia, tlie Duke of Oldenburg, and Russia. It was also 
adopted, under certain modifications, in our late commercial conven- 
tion with France, and by the act of Congress of the 8tli January, 1824, 
it has received a new confirmation with all the nations who had ac- 
ceded to it, and has been offered again to all those who are or may 
hereafter be willing to abide in reciprocity by it. But all these regu- 
lations, whether established by treaty or by municipal enactments, are 
still subject to one important restriction. 

The removal of discriminating duties of tonnage and of impost is 
limited to articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the 
country to which the vessel belongs or to such articles as are most 
usually first shipped from her ports. It will deserve the serious con- 
sideration of Congress whether even this remnant of restriction may 
not be safely abandoned, and whether the general tender of equal com- 
petition made in the act of 8th January, 1824, may not be extended to 
include all articles of merchandise not prohibited, of what country so- 
ever they may be the produce or manufacture. Propositions to this 
effect have already been made to us by more than one European Gov- 
ernment, and it is probable that if once established by legislation or 
compact with any distinguished maritime State it would recommend 
itself by the experience of its advantages to the general accession of all. 

The convention of commerce and navigation between the United 
States and France, concluded on the 24th of June, 1822, was, in the 
understanding and intent of both parties, as appears upon its face, only 
a temporary arrangement of the points of difference between them of 
the most immediate and pressing urgency. It was limited in the first 
instance two years from the ist of October, 1822, but wnth a proviso 
that it should further continue in force till the conclusion of a general 
and definitive treaty of commerce, unless terminated by a notice, six 
months in advance, of either of the parties to the other. Its operation 
so far as it extended has been mutually advantageous, and it still con- 
tinues in force by common consent. But it left unadjusted several ob- 
jects of great interest to the citizens and subjects of both countries, 
and particularly a mass of claims to considerable am.ount of citizens of 
the United States npon the Government of France of indemnity for 
jjroperty taken or destroyed under circumstances of the most aggra- 
vated and outrageous character. In the long period during which 
continual and earnest appeals have been made to the equity and mag- 
nanimity of France in behalf of these claims their justice has not been, 



i68 History of the United States. 

as it could not be, denied. It was hoped that the accession of a new 
Sovereign to the throne would have afforded a favorable opportunity 
for presenting thcni to the consideration of his Government. They 
have been presented and urged hitherto without effect. The repeated 
and earnest representations of our minister at the Court of France re- 
main as yet even without an answer. 

It is with great satisfaction that I am enabled to bear witness to the 
liberal spirit with which the Republic of Colombia has made satisfac- 
tion for well-established claims of a similar character, and among the 
documents now communicated to Congress will be distinguished a 
treaty of commerce and navigation with that Republic, the ratifications 
of which have been exchanged since the last recess of the Legislature. 
The negotiations of similar treaties with all the independent South 
American States has been contemplated and may yet be accomplished. 
The basis of them all, as proposed by the United States, has been laid 
in two principles — the one of entire and unqualified reciprocity, the 
other the mutual obligation of the parties to place each other perma- 
nently upon the footing of the most favored nation. These principles 
are, indeed, indispensable to the effectual emancipation of the Ameri- 
can hemisphere from the thraldom of colonizing monopolies and ex- 
clusions, an event rapidly realizing in the progress of human affairs, 
and which the resistance still opposed in certain parts of Europe to the 
acknowledgment of the Southern American Republics as independent 
States will, it is believed, contribute more effectually to accomplish. 
The time has been, and that not remote, w'hen some of those States 
might, in their anxious desire to obtain a nominal recognition, have ac- 
cepted of a nominal independence, clogged with burdensome condi- 
tions, and exclusive commercial privileges granted to the nation from 
wdiich they have separated to the disadvantage of all others. They 
are all now aware that such concessions to any European nation would 
be incompatible with the independence which they have declared and 
maintained. 

Among the unequivocal indications of our national prosperity is the 
flourishing state of our finances. The revenues of the present year, 
from all their principal sources, will exceed the anticipations of the last. 
The balance in the Treasury on the ist of January last was a little short 
of $2,000,000. exclusive of two millions and a half, being the moiety 
of the loan of five millions authorized by the act of 26th of May, 1824. 
The receipts into the Treasury from the ist of January to the 30th o! 
September, exclusive of the other moiety of the same loan, are esti- 



John Quincy Adams. 169 

mated at $16,500,000, and it is expected that those of the current quar- 
ter will exceed $5,000,000, forming an aggregate of receipts of nearly 
twenty-two millions, independent of the loan. The expenditures of 
the year will not exceed that sum more than two millions. By those 
expenditures nearly eight millions of the principal of the public debt 
have been discharged. More than a million and a half has been de- 
voted to the debt of gratitude to the warriors of the Revolution; a nearly 
equal sum to the construction of fortifications and the acquisition of 
ordnance and other permanent preparations of national defense; half 
a million to the gradual increase of the Navy; an equal sum for pur- 
chases of territory from the Indians and payment of annuities to them; 
and upward of a million for objects of internal improvement authorized 
by special acts of the last Congress. If we add to these $4,000,000 for 
payment and interest upon the public debt, there remains a sum of 
about seven millions, which have defrayed the whole expense of the ad- 
ministration of Government in its legislative, executive, and judiciary 
departments, including the support of the military and naval establish- 
ments and all the occasional contingencies of a government coexten- 
sive with the Union. 

An increase of both the corps of engineers, military and topographi- 
cal, was recommended by my predecessor at the last session of Con- 
gress. The reasons upon which that recommendation was founded 
subsist in all their force and have acquired additional urgency since 
that time. It may also be expedient to organize the topographical 
engineers into a corps similar to the present establishment of the Corps 
of Engineers. The military academy at West Point will furnish from 
the cadets annually graduated there of^cers well qualified for carrsnug 
this measure into effect. 

The portion of the naval force of the Union in actual service has 
been chiefly employed on three stations — the Mediterranean, the 
coasts of South America bordering on the Pacific Ocean, and the West 
Indies. An occasional cruiser has been sent to range along the Afri- 
can shores most polluted by the traffic of slaves; one armed vessel has 
been stationed on the coast of our eastern boundary, to cruise along 
the fishing grounds in Hudson Bay and on the coast of Labrador, and 
the first service of a new frigate has been performed in restoring to his 
native soil and domestic enjoyments the veteran hero whose youthful 
blood and treasure had freely flowed in the cause of our country's in- 
dependence, and whose whole life has been a series of services and sac- 
rifices to the improvement of his fellgw-men. The visit of General 



170 History of the United States. 

Lafayette, alike honorable to himself and to our country, closed, as it 
had commenced, with the most afifecting testimonials of devoted at- 
tachment on his part, and of unbounded gratitude of this people to 
him in return. 

The constant maintenance of a small squadron in the Mediterranean 
is a necessary substitute for the humiliating alternative of paying 
tribute for the security of our commerce in that sea, and for a pre- 
carious peace, at the mercy of every caprice of four Barbary States, 
by whom it was liable to be violated. An additional motive for keep- 
ing a respectable force stationed there at this time is found in the 
maritime war raging between the Greeks and the Turks, and in which 
the neutral navigation of this Union is always in danger of outrage and 
depredation. A few instances have occurred of such depredations 
upon our merchant vessels by privateers or pirates wearing the 
Grecian flag, but without real authority from the Greek or any other 
Government. The heroic struggles of the Greeks themselves, in 
which our warmest sympathies as freemen and Christians have been 
engaged, have continued to be maintained with vicissitudes of success 
adverse and favorable. 

Similar motives have rendered expedient the keeping of a like force 
on the coasts of Peru and Chili on the Pacific. The irregular and 
convulsive character of the war upon the shores has been extended 
to the conflicts upon the ocean. An active warfare has been kept 
up for years with alternate success, though generally to the advantage 
of the American patriots. But their naval forces have not always 
been under the control of their own Governments. Blockades, un- 
justifiable upon any acknowledged principles of international law, have 
been proclaimed by of^cers in command, and though disavowed by 
the supreme authorities, the protection of our own commerce against 
them has been made cause of complaint and erroneous imputations 
against some of the most gallant officers of our Navy. Complaints 
equally groundless have been made by the commanders of the Spanish 
royal forces in those seas; but the most effective protection to our 
commerce has been the flag and the firmness of our own commanding 
oflicers. The cessation of the war by the complete triumph of the 
patriot cause has removed, it is hoped, all cause of dissension with 
one party and all vestige of force of the other. But an unsettled 
coast of many degrees of latitude forming a part of our own territory 
and a flourishing commeroe and fisherv extending to the islands of 
the Pacific and to China still require that the protecting power of the 



John Quincy Adams. 171 

Union should be displayed under its flag as well upon the ocean as 
upon the land. 

The objects of the West India Squadron have been to carry into 
execution the laws for the suppression of the African slave trade; for 
the protection of our commerce against vessels of piratical character, 
though bearing commissions from either of the belligerent parties; 
for its protection against open and unequivocal pirates. These ob- 
jects during the present year have been accomplished more efifectually 
than at any former period. The African slave trade has long been ex- 
cluded from the use of our flag, and if some few citizens of our country 
have continued to set the laws of the Union as well as those of nature 
and hum_anity at defiance by persevering in that abominable trafBc, 
it has been only by sheltering themselves under the banners of other 
nations less earnest for the total extinction of the trade than ours. 
The irregular privateers have within the last year been in a great 
measure banished from those seas, and the pirates for months past 
appear to have been almost entirely swept away from the borders and 
the shores of the Spanish islands in those regions. The active, per- 
severing, and unreuiitted energy of Captain Warrington and of the 
officers and men under his command on that trying and perilous ser- 
vice have been crowned with signal success, and are entitled to the 
approbation of their country. But experience has shown that not 
even a temporary suspension or relaxation from assiduity can be in- 
dulged on that station without reproducing piracy and murder in all 
their horrors; nor is it probable that for years to come our immensely 
valuable commerce in those seas can navigate in security without 
the steady continuance of an armed force devoted to its protection. 

It were, indeed, a vain and dangerous illusion to believe that in 
the present or probable condition of human society a commerce so 
extensive and so rich as ours could exist and be pursued in safety 
without the continual support of a military marine — the only arm by 
which the power of this Confederacy can be estimated or felt by 
foreign nations, and the only standing military force which can never 
be dangerous to our own liberties at home. A permanent naval peace 
establishment, therefore, adapted to our present condition, and adapt- 
able to that gigantic growth with which the nation is advancing in 
its career. 

Our navy commenced at an early period of our present political 
organization upon a scale commensurate with scant resoTirces, yet 
retains nearlv the same organization as when it consisted onlv of 



172 History of the United States. 

five frigates. The rules and regulations by which it is gov- 
erned earnestly call for revision, and the want of a naval school of in- 
struction, corresponding with the Military Academy at West Point, 
for the formation of scientific and accomplished ofBcers, is felt with 
daily increasfng aggravation. 

The act of Congress of 26th of May, 1824, authorizing an examina- 
tion and survey of the harbor of Charleston, in South Carolina, of St. 
Marys, in Georgia, and of the coast of Florida, and for other purposes, 
has been executed so far as the appropriation would admit. Those 
of the 3d of March last, authorizing the establishment of a navy-yard 
and depot on the coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, and author- 
izing the building of ten sloops of war, and for other purposes, are in 
the course of execution. 

In assuming her station among the civilized nations of the earth it 
would seem that our country had contracted the engagement to con- 
tribute her share of mind, of labor, and of expense to the improvement 
of those parts of knowledge which lie beyond the reach of individual 
acquisition, and particularly to geographical and astronomical science. 
Looking back to the history only of the half century since the declara- 
tion of our independence, and observing the generous emulation with 
which the Governments of France, Great Britain, and Russia have 
devoted the genius, the intelligence, the treasures of their respective 
nations to the common improvement of the species in these branches 
of science, is it not incumbent upon us to inquire whether we are not 
bound by obligations of a high and honorable character to contribute 
our portion of energy and exertion to the common stock? The voy- 
ages of discovery prosecuted in the course of that time at the expense 
of those nations have not only redounded to their glory, but to the 
improvement of human knowledge. We have been partakers of that 
improvement and owe for it a sacred debt, not only of gratitude, but 
of equal or proportional exertion in the same common cause. 

In inviting the attention of Congress to the subject of internal im- 
provements upon a view thus enlarged it is not my design to recom- 
mend the equipment of an expedition for circumnavigating the globe 
for purposes of scientific research and inquiry. We have objects of 
iiseful investigation nearer home, and to which our cares may be more 
beneficially applied. The interior of our own territories have vet been 
very imperfectly explored. Our coasts along many degrees of latitude 
upon the shores of the Pacific Ocean, though much frequented bv our 
spirited commercial navigators, have been barely visited by our public 



John Quincy Adams. 173 

ships. The River of the West, first fully discovered and navigated 
by a countryman of our own, still bears the name of the ship in which 
he ascended its waters, and claims the protection of our armed national 
flag at its mouth. With the establishment of a military post there or 
at some other point of that coast, I would suggest the expediency 
of connecting the equipment of a public ship for the exploration of 
the whole northwest coast of this continent. 

The establishment of an uniform standard of weights and measures 
was one of the specific objects contemplated in the formation of our 
Constitution, and to fix that standard was one of the powers delegated 
by express terms in that instrument to Congress. The Governments 
of Great Britain and France have scarcely ceased to be occupied with 
inquiries and speculations on the same subject since the existence of 
our Constitution, and with them it has expanded into profound, labori- 
ous, and expensive researches into the figure of the earth and the 
comparative length of the pendulum vibrating seconds in various lati- 
tudes from the equator to the pole. These researches have resulted 
in the composition and publication of several works highly interesting 
to tlie cause of science. The experiments are yet in the process of 
performance. 

When, on the 25th of October, 1791, the first President of the 
United States announced to Congress the result of the first enumera- 
tion of the inhabitants of this Union, he informed them that the returns 
gave the pleasing assurance that the population of the United States 
bordered on 4.000,000 persons. At the distance or thirty years from 
that time the last enumeration, five years since completed, presented 
a population bordering upon 10,000,000. Perhaps of all the evidences 
of a prosperous and happy condition of human society the rapidity of 
the increase of population is the most unequivocal. But the demon- 
stration of our prosperity rests not alone upon this indication. Our 
commerce, our wealth, and the extent of our territories have increased 
in corresponding proportions, and the number of independent com- 
munities associated in our Federal Union has since that time nearly 
doubled. The legislative representation of the States and people in 
the two Houses of Congress has grown with the growth of their con- 
stituent bodies. The House, which then consisted of 65 members, 
now numbers upward of 200. The Senate, wliich consisted of 26 
members, has now 48. But the executive and, still more, the judiciary 
departments are yet in a great measure confined to their primitive 
orcranization. and arc now not adequate to the urgent wants of a still 
growing community. 



174 History of the United States. 

On the 24th of December, 1799, it was resolved by Congress that 
a marble monument should be erected by the United States in the 
Capitol at the city of Washington ; that the family of General Washing- 
ton should be requested to permit his body to be deposited under it, 
and that the monument be so designed as to commemorate the great 
events of his military and political life. In reminding Congress of 
this resolution and that the monument contemplated by it remains 
yet without execution, I shall indulge only the remarks that the 
works at the Capitol are approaching to completion ; that the consent 
of the family, desired by the resolution, was requested and obtained; 
that a monument has been recently erected in this city over the 
remains of another distinguished patriot of the Revolution, and that 
a spot has been reserved within the w^alls where you are deliberating 
for the benefit of this and future ages, in which the mortal remains 
may be deposited of him whose spirit hovers over you and listens with 
delight to every act of the representatives of his nation wdiich can 
tend to exalt and adorn his and their country. 



second annual message, DECEMBER 5, 1826. 

By the decease of the Emperor Alexander, of Russia, which oc- 
curred cotemporaneously with the commencement of the last session 
of Congress, the United States have been deprived of a long-tried, 
steady, and faithful friend. Born to the inheritance of absolute power 
and trained in the school of adversity, from which no power on earth, 
however absolute, is exempt, that monarch from his youth had been 
taught to feel the force and value of public opinion and to be sensible 
that the interests of his own Government would best be promoted 
by a frank and friendly intercourse wath this Republic, as those of his 
people would be advanced by a liberal commercial intercourse with 
our country. A candid and confidential interchange of sentiments 
between him and the Government of the United States upon the 
affairs of Southern America took place at a period not long preceding 
liis demise, and contributed to fix that course of policy wdiich left to 
the other Governments of Europe no alternative but that of sooner or 
later recognizing the independence of our southern neighbors, of 
v.'hich the example had by the United States already been set. The 
ordinary diplomatic communications between his successor, the Em- 



/ 



I V' JC^C'cLa/ZUl/^/^ny. 



/ 

/ / 1/ 

tc/..'i. .rU .^/.^'^^V/1<-.-.^/--'^ ^y ^'A- //^T. Vi.^* ,ry .,■y^aJ'^'■- 



FIRST AND LAST PAGES OF PRES. J. Q. ADAM'S PROCLAMA- 
TION ON TONNAGE DUTIES. 



/ 









/ 






:^^ A .v/^A..-^ ,v/^/. - .;-• . ;^ .T^./. 



^y4*-< ^- ^'■^•. 



■/ •.^- '''•-•• . • 

.^.i.--C- /''.'/.■4(>' ^.'.-7^/- 



iH ' ■ ' ^ i /t O C P t't ^i 4 .' , 



'..-<^/' itT ,\-. /^ c/i^: ( «; x.^'<< 












./ 



7 



/ 

/ - 



/ 



y^.-/. ■ J^-M ^2^>^ c^^^^n^. 



r^^/ y//^ ,'/^^. '/'/>/' /^ 



/^^ . ^^.^.-/-^ - -; -^^^'Z^- 



John Quincy Adams. 177 

peror Nicholas, and the United States have suffered some interruption 
by the ilhiess, departure, and subsequent decease of his minister resid- 
ing here, who enjoyed, as he merited, the entire confidence of his new 
sovereign, as he had eminently responded to that of his predecessor. 
But we have had the most satisfactory assurances that the sentiments 
of the reigning Emperor toward the United States are altogether con- 
formable to those which had so long and constantly animated his 
imperial brother. 

The fiftieth anniversary of the day when our independence was de- 
clared has been celebrated throughout our land, and en that day, while 
every heart was bounding with joy and every voice was tuned to 
gratulation, amid the blessings of freedom and independence which 
the sires of a former age had handed down to their children, two 
of the principal actors in that solemn scene* — the hand that 
penned the ever-memorable Declaration and the voice that sustained it 
in debate — • were by one summons, at the distance of 700 miles from 
each other, called before the Judge of All to account for their deeds 
done upon earth. They departed cheered by the benedictions of their 
country, to whom they left the inheritance of their fame and the 
memory of their bright example. 

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 4, 1827. 

At the commencement of the last session of Congress they w^ere 
informed of the sudden and unexpected exclusion by the British 
Government of access in vessels of the United States to all their 
colonial ports, except those immediately bordering upon our own 
territories. In the amicable discussions which have succeeded the 
adoption of this measure, which, as it affected harshly the interests of 
the United States, became a subject of expostulation on. our part, the 
principles upon which its justification has been placed have been of a 
diversified character. It has been at once ascribed to a mere recur- 
rence to the old, long-established principle of colonial monopoly and 
at the same time to a feeling of resentment because the offers of an 
act of Parliament opening the colonial ports upon certain conditions 
had not been grasped at with sufificient eagerness by an instantaneous 
conformity to them. 

The session of Congress having terminated without any act upon 
the subject, a proclamation was issued on the 17th of March last, con- 
formably to the provisions of the sixth section of the act of ist March, 

* Jolxn Adams and Thomas Jefferson. 



178 HlSTOI^Y OF THE UNITED StATES. 

1823, declaring the fact that the trade and intercourse authorized by 
the British act of Parhament of 24th June, 1822, between the United 
States and the British enumerated colonial ports had been by the sub- 
sequent acts of Parliament of 5th July, 1825, and the order of council 
of 27th July, 1826, prohibited. The effect of this proclamation, by 
the terms of the act under which it was issued, has been that each and 
every provision of the act concerning navigation of i8th April, 1818, 
and of the act supplementary thereto of 15th May, 1820, revived and 
is in full force. Such, then, is the present condition of the trade that, 
useful as it is to both parties, it can, with a single momentary excep- 
tion, be carried on directly by the vessels of neither. That exception 
itself is found in a proclamation of the governor of the island of St. 
Christopher and of the Virgin Islands, inviting for three months from 
the 28th of August last the importation of the articles of the produce 
of the United States which constitute their export portion of this trade 
in the vessels of all nations. That period having already expired, 
the state of mutual interdiction has again taken place. The British 
Government have not only declined negotiation upon this subject, 
but by the principle they have assumed with reference to it have pre- 
cluded even the means of negotiation. It becomes not the self-respect 
of the United States either to solicit gratuitous favors or to accept 
as the grant of a favor that for which an ample equivalent is exacted. 
It remains to be determined by the respective Governments whether 
the trade shall be opened by acts of reciprocal legislation. It is, in 
the meantime, satisfactory to know that apart from the inconveniences 
resulting from a disturbance of the usual channels of trade no loss has 
been sustained by the commerce, the navigation, or the revenue of 
the United States, and none of magnitude is to be apprehended from 
this existing state of mutual interdict. 



FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 2, 1828. 

Before your last separation a war had unhappily been kindled be- 
tween the Empire of Russia, one of those with wdiich our intercourse 
has been no other than a constant exchange of good offices, and that 
of the Ottoman Porte, a nation from which geographical distance, 
religious opinions and maxims of government on their part little 
suited to the formation of those bonds of mutual benevolence which 
result from the benefits of commerce had kept us in a state, perhaps too 



John Quincy Adams. 179 

much prolonged, of coldness and alienation. The extensive, fertile, 
and populous dominions of the Sultan belong rather to the Asiatic 
than the European division of the human family. They enter but 
partially into the system of Europe, nor have their wars with Russia 
and Austria, the European States upon which they border, for more 
than a century past disturbed the pacific relations of those States with 
the other great powers of Europe. Neither France nor Prussia nor 
Great Britain has ever taken part in them, nor is it to be expected that 
they will at this time. The declaration of war by Russia has received 
the approbation or acquiescence of her allies, and we may indulge the 
hope that its progress and termination will be signalized by the mod- 
eration and forbearance no less than by the energy of the Emperor 
Nicholas, and that it will afford the opportunity for such collateral 
agency in behalf of the suffering Greeks as will secure to them ulti- 
mately the triumph of humanity and of freedom. 

The state of our particular relations with France has scarcely varied 
in the course of the present year. The commercial intercourse be- 
tween the two countries has continued to increase for the mutual 
benefit of both. The claims of indemnity to numbers of our fellow- 
citizens for depredations upon their property, heretofore committed 
during the revolutionary governments, remain unadjusted, and still 
form the subject of earnest representation and remonstrance. 

The last friendly expedient has been resorted to for the decision of 
the controversy with Great Britain relating to the northeastern bound- 
ary of the United States. By an agreement with the British Govern- 
ment, carry into effect the provisions of the fifth article of the treaty 
of Ghent, and the convention of 29th September, 1827, His Majesty 
the King of the Netherlands has by common consent been selected as 
the umpire between the parties. The proposal to him to accept the 
designation for the performance of this friendly office will be made 
at an early day, and the United States, relying upon the justice of their 
cause, will cheerfully commit the arbitrament of it to a prince equally 
distinguished for the independence of his spirit, his indefatigable as- 
siduity to the duties of his station, and his inflexible personal probity. 

A resolution of the House of Representatives requesting that one 
of our small public vessels should be sent to the Pacific Ocean and 
South Sea to examine the coasts, islands, harbors, shoals, and reefs 
in those seas, and to ascertain their true situation and description, has 
been put in a train of execution. The vessel is nearly ready to depart. 
The successful accomplishment of the expedition may be greatly 



iSo • History of the United States. 

facilitated by suitable legislative provisions, and particularly by an 
appropriation to defray its necessary expense. The addition of a 
second, and perhaps a third, vessel, with a slight aggravation of the 
cost, would contribute much to the safety of the citizens embarked on 
this undertaking, the results of which may be of the deepest interest 
to our country. 

The construction of the two dry docks at Charlestown and at Nor- 
folk is making satisfactory progress toward a durable establishment. 
The examinations and inquiries to ascertain the practicability and ex- 
pediency of a marine railway at Pensacola, though not yet accom- 
plished, have been postponed but to be more effectually made. The 
navy-yards of the United States have been examined, and plans for 
their improvement and the preservation of the public property therein 
at Portsmouth, Charlestov.n, Philadelphia, Washington, and Gosport, 
and to which two others are to be added, have been prepared and re- 
ceived my sanction; and no other portion of my public duties has 
been performed with a more intimate conviction of its importance to 
the future welfare and security of the Union. 

With the report from the Postmaster-General is exhibited a com- 
parative view of the gradual increase of that establishment, from five 
to five years, since 1792 till this time in the number of post-offices, 
which has grown from less than 200 to nearly 8,000; in the revenue 
yielded by them, which from $67,000 has swollen to upward of a mil- 
lion and a half, and in the number of miles of post-roads, which from 
5,642 have multiplied to 114,536. Wliile in the same period of time 
the population of the Union has about thrice doubled, the rate of in- 
crease of these offices is nearly 40, and of the revenue and of traveled 
miles from 20 to 25 for i. The increase of revenue within the last five 
years has been nearly equal to the whole revenue of the Department 
in 1812. 

The expenditr.res of the Department during the year v^-hich ended 
on the 1st of July last have exceeded the receipts by a sum of about 
$25,000. The excess has been occasioned by the increase of mail 
conveyances and facilities to the extent of near 800.000 miles. It has 
been supplied by collections from the postmasters of the arrearages of 
preceding years. While the correct principle seems to be that the in- 
come levied by the Department '■.hould defrav all its expenses, it has 
never been the policv of this Government to raise from this establish- 
ment anv revcntie to be applied tn anv other purposes. The sueges- 
tion of the Postmaster-General tliat the insurance of the safe trans- 



John Quincy Adams. i8i 

mission of moneys by the mail might be assumed by the Department 
for a moderate and competent remuneration will deserve the considera- 
tion of Congress. 



LIFE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS was born at Quincy, Mass., July ii, 
1767. He was son of John Adams, the second President of the 
United States. He enjoyed rare educational advantages. In 
childhood he was instructed by his mother, a woman of great in- 
tellectual ability. When 11 years old in 1778, he accompanied his 
father to France and attended a school in Paris until he returned 
home in A.ugust, 1779. His father again took him to Europe in 
1780, and placed him at the University of Lyden, where he learned 
Latin and Greek. In July, 1781, at the age of 14, he was appointed by 
Washington private secretary to Francis Dana, minister to Russia. He 
remained at St. Petersburg until October, 1782, after which he resumed 
his studies at The Hague. He was present at the signing of the definite 
treaty of peace in Paris, September 3, 1783. He then passed some 
months with his father in London, and by his own choice returned to 
the United States to complete his education, entering Harvard College 
in 1786, graduating in 1788. He studied law with the celebrated 
Theophilus Parsons of Newburyport, INIass. Was admitted to the 
bar in 1791, and began to practice in Boston LTnder the name of 
Publicola he wrote a series of able articles, in which he exposed the 
fallacies and vagaries of the French political reformers. These papers 
were published in the Boston Sentinel in 1791, and attracted much at- 
tention, both in the United States and Europe. He wrote in 1793, 
several articles, signed Marcellus, in which he argued that the United 
States should observe strict neutrality, in the war between the French 
and British. These writings were especially pleasing to Washington, 
and he was appointed minister to Holland in May, 1794. He married 
Louisa Catherine Johnson, a daugliter of Joshua Johnson of Mary- 
land, who was then American consul at London. Washington, in a 
letter dated Februarv 20, 1797, commended him highly to President 
Adams and advised him not to withhold promotion from him because 
he was his son. He was accordingly appointed minister to Berlin in 
1797. While there he negotiated a treaty of amity and commerce 
with the Prussian Government. He was recalled in 1801. In March, 



i82 History of the United States. 

1803, he was elected by the Federalists of Massachusetts to the United 
States Senate. He was appointed professor of rhetoric and belles- 
lettres at Harvard College in 1805, and accepted on the condition 
that he be allowed to attend to his Senatorial duties. By supporting 
Jefferson's Embargo Act, which passed in December, 1807, he of- 
fended the Federalists and thus became connected with the Demo- 
cratic party. In March, 1808, he resigned from the Senate rather than 
to serve the remainder of his term vmder the instructions of the Fed- 
eralists. President Madison appointed him minister to Russia March, 
1809. While there he was nominated to be an associate justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States and was confirmed February, 
181 1, but declined the appointment. He was appointed with Clay and 
others, a commissioner to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Brit- 
ain in 181 3. They met the British diplomats at Ghent and after a pro- 
tracted negotiation of six months signed a treaty of peace, December 
24, 1814. He was appointed minister to the Court of St. James in the 
spring of 1815, and remained there until President Monroe made him 
Secretary of State in 1817. He was a candidate with Jackson, Craw- 
ford and Clay for the Presidency in 1824. Neither of the candidates 
receiving a majority in the electoral colleges, the election devolved on 
the House of Representatives. Aided by the influence of Henry Clay, 
Mr. Adams received the votes of thirteen states and was elected. He 
was defeated for re-election in 1828 by General Andrew Jackson. He 
then retired to his estate in Quincy, Mass., but was elected to Con- 
gress in 1830 and took his seat December, 1831. He continued to 
represent his native district for seventeen years, during which time he 
was constantly at his post. On the 21st of February, 1848, while in 
his seat at the Capitol, he was stricken with paralysis, and died on the 
23d of that month. He was buried at Quincy, Mass., where he is 
always spoken of as ** The Old Man Eloquent." 



Andrew Jackson. 



183 







fSvi-J^-^-v 



THE HERMITAGE," NEAR NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE — ANDREW JACKSON'S HOME. 



CHAPTER VII 



ANDREW JACKSON AS SOLDIER AND STATESMAN. 



By Major-General Joseph Wheeler. 



'T^HERE are many things for wliich Jackson will be remembered by future 
■*• generations. I should be inclined to say, however, that his most dis- 
tinguished characteristics were an iron will and unyielding firmness. Andrew 
Jackson was a great man in very many ways, conspicuously so in upholding 
with truth and purity the doctrines of the founders of the Republic. 

He will be remembered both as a statesman and as a warrior, but chiefly as 
a statesman. You see he was never in any great battle with the exception of 



184 History of the United States. 

the battle of New C^ricans, which was his greatest victory. But the relative 
importance of his deeds on the battle field as compared with those as a legis- 
lator and as president is not great. 

Speaking of the battle of New Orleans, there is no question but what the 
heroic conduct of the ofBcers and men of the Brig Armstrong at the battle of 
Fayal, had the effect of retarding the British fleet, and thus preventing rein- 
forcements from being sent to Packenham in time to crush the Americans 
engaged in the defense of New Orleans, as would otherwise have been thi; 
case. 

Of course Jackson made some wonderful campaigns in the Indian wars. 
He distinguished himself greatly, but it was only in the fight with Packenham 
that he had to contend against a highly civilized race. You must remember 
that the same regiments which he defeated at New Orleatis were afterwards 
iii the battle of Waterloo with very different results. 

As a statesman, the thing in which Jackson was preeminent was for uphold- 
ing the agricultural and manufacturing interests of the country. Jackson 
shared the views entertained by Washington and Jefferson relative to the 
superior importance of our agricultural interests compared with commerce 
and manufactures. This will be evident from the part in this Message, which 
I will quote: "The agricultural interest of our country is so essentially con- 
nected with every other, and so superior in importance to them all, that it is 
scarcely necessary to invite to it your particular attention. It is principally 
as manufactures and commerce tend to increase the value of agricultural pro- 
ductions, and to extend their application to the wants and comforts of society, 
that they deserve the fostering care of government." Jackson also says: 
" While the chief object of duties should be revenue, they may be so adjusted 
as to encourage manufactures." But he strictly adheres to his demand for 
light taxes on necessities. 

President Jackson was strenuously opposed to any system which might by 
any possibility tend to establish monopolies. It was upon this subject that he 
gave utterance to these memorable words: "The ambition which leads me 
on is an anxious desire and fixed determination to * * * persuade my 
countrymen, so far as I may, that it is not in a splendid government sup- 
ported by powerful monopolies and aristocratical establishments that they 
will find happiness or the protection of their liberties; but in a plain system, 
void of pomp, protecting all and granting favors to none, dispensing its 
blessings like the dews of heaven, unseen and unfelt, save in the freshness 
and beauty they contribute to produce." Gen. Jackson also adds this great 
and undeniable truth: " It is such a government that the genius of our peo- 




SEVENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 





5^ 



CARTOON ON ANDREW JACKSON's CAMPAIGN FOR HIS SECOND TERM, PICTURING 
HIS POWER OF CONTROLLING MEN AGAINST THEIR OWN WILL. 




CARTOON ON ANDREW JACKSON's SECOND TERM CAMPAIGN, SHOWIHG HOW HE 
PLEASED THE MASSES BY OVERTHROWING THE NATIONAL BANK MONOPOLY. 



Andrew Jackson. 



187 



pie requires — such a one only under which our states may remain for ages 
to come united, prosperous and free." 

It is in view of such utterances as these that I say that Jackson's future place 
in history will depend upon his utterances as a statesman, rather than his deeds 
as a warrior. Caution had been the admonition of the thoughtful and pains- 
taking Monroe, " caution " was the keynote of the policy upon this important 
Ciuestion recommended by the impetuous and dauntless Jackson. 




History of the United States. 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1829-1837. 



By Andrew Jackson. 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1829. 

AS the instrument of the Federal Constitution it will devolve on 
me for a stated period to execute the laws of the United States, 
to superintend their foreign and their confederate relations, 
to manage their revenue, to command their forces, and, by communi- 
cations to the Legislature, to watch over and to promote their interests 
generally. And the principles of action by which I shall endeavor to 
accomplish this circle of duties it is now proper for me briefly to 
explain. 

In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view 
the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power, trusting 
thereby to discharge the functions of my ofBce without transcending 
its authority. With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve 
peace and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms, and in 
the adjustment of any differences that may exist or arise to exhibit the 
forbearance becoming a powerful nation rather than the sensibility 
belonging to a gallant people. 

The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes on the list 
of Executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the 
task of reform, which will require particularly the correction of those 
abuses that have brought the patronage of the Federal Government 
into conflict with the freedom of elections, and the counteraction of 
those causes which have disturbed the rightful course of appointment 
and have placed or continued power in unfaithful or incompetent 
hands. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 8, 1829. 

I consider it one of the most urgent of my duties to bring to your 
attention the propriety of amending that part of our Constitution 
which relates to the election of President and Vice-President. Our 
system of government was by its framers deemed an experiment, and 
they, therefore, consistently provided a mode of remedying its defects. 



Andrew Jackson. 189 

To the people belongs the right of electing their Chief Magistrate; 
it was never designed that their choice should in any case be defeated, 
either by the intervention of electoral colleges or by the agency con- 
fided, under certain contingencies, to the House of Representatives, 
Experience proves that in proportion as agents to execute the will of 
the people are multiplied there is danger of their wishes being frus- 
trated. Some may be unfaithful; all are liable to err. So far, there- 
fore, as the people can with convenience speak, it is safer for them to 
express their own will. 

The number of aspirants to the Presidency and the diversity of the 
interests which may influence their claims leave little reason to expect 
a choice in the first instance, and in that event the election must de- 
volve on the House of Representatives, where it is obvious the will of 
the people may not be always ascertained, or, if ascertained, may not 
be regarded. From the mode of voting by States the choice is to be 
made by 24 votes, and it may often occur that one of these will be con- 
trolled by an individual Representative. Honors and offices are at the 
disposal of the successful candidate. Repeated ballotings may make 
it apparent that a single individual holds the cast in his hand. May 
he not be tempted to name his reward? But even without corruption, 
supposing the probity of the Representative to be proof against the 
powerful motives by which it may be assailed, the v/ill of the people 
is still constantly liable to be misrepresented. 

But although no evil of this character should result from such a per- 
version of the first principle of our system — that the majority is to 
govern — it must be very certain that a President elected by a minority 
can not enjoy the confidence necessary to the successful discharge of 
his duties. 

In this as in all other matters of public concern policy requires that 
as few impediments as possible should exist to the free operation of 
the public will. Let us, then, endeavor so to amend our system that 
the office of Chief Magistrate may not be conferred upon any citizen 
but in pursuance of a fair expression of the will of the majority. 

I would therefore recommend such an amendment of the Constitu- 
tion as may remove all intermediate agency in the election of the Presi- 
dent and A^ice-President. The mode may be so regulated as to pre- 
serve to each State its present relative weight in the election, and a 
failure in the first attempt may be provided for by confining the sec- 
ond to a choice between the two highest candidates. 



IQO History of the United States. 

No very considerable change has occurred during the recess of 
Congress in the condition of either our agricuUure, commerce, or 
manufactures. The operation of the tariff has not proved so injurious 
to the two former or as beneficial to the two latter as was anticipated. 
Importations of foreign goods have not been sensibly diminished, 
while domestic competition, under an. illusive excitement, has increased 
the production much beyond the demand for home consumption. 
The consequences have been low prices, temporary embarrassment, 
and partial loss. That such of our manufacturing establishments as 
are based upon capital and are prudently managed will survive the 
shock and be ultimately profitable there is no good reason to doubt. 

To regulate its conduct so as to promote equally the prosperity of 
these three cardinal interests is one of the most difficult tasks of Gov- 
ernment; and it may be regretted that the complicated restrictions 
which now embarrass the intercourse of nations could not by common 
consent be abolished, and commerce allowed to flow in those channels 
to which individual enterprise, always its surest guide, might direct it. 
But we must ever expect selfish legislation in other nations, and are 
therefore compelled to adapt our own to their regulations in the man- 
ner best calculated to avoid serious injury and to harmonize the con- 
flicting interests of our agriculture, our commerce, and our manufac- 
tures. Under these impressions I invite your attention to the exist- 
ing tariff, believing that some of its provisions require modification. 

The general rule to be applied in graduating the duties upon articles 
of foreign growth or manufacture is that which will place our own in 
fair competition with those of other countries; and the inducements to 
advance even a step beyond this point are controlling in regard to 
those articles which are of primary necessity in time of war. When 
we reflect upon the difficulty and delicacy of this operation, it is im- 
portant that it should never be attempted but with the utmost caution. 
Frequent legislation in regard to any branch of industry, affecting its 
value, and by which its capital may be transferred to new channels, 
must always be productive of hazardous speculation and loss. 

In deliberating, therefore, on these interesting subjects local feelings 
and prejudices should be merged in the patriotic determination to pro- 
mote the great interests of the whole. All attempts to connect them 
with the party conflicts of the day are necessarily injurious, and should 
be discountenanced. Our action upon them should be under the control 
of higher and purer motives. Legislation subjected to such influences 
can never be just, and will not long retain the sanction of a people 



Andrew Jackson. 191 

whose active patriotism is nut bounded by sectional limits nor insensi- 
ble to that spirit of concession and forbearance which gave life to our 
political compact and still sustains it. Discarding all calculations of 
political ascendency, the North, the South, the East, and the West 
should unite in diminishing any burden of which either may justly 
complain. 

The agricultural interest of our country is so essentially connected 
with every other and so superior in importance to them all that it is 
scarcely necessary to invite to it your particular attention. It is prin- 
cipally as manufactures and commerce tend to increase the value of 
agricultural productions and to extend their application to the 
wants and comforts of society that they deserve the fostering care of 
Government. 

Looking forward to the period, not far distant, when a sinking fund 
will no longer be required, the duties of those articles of importation 
which can not come in competition with our own productions are the 
first that should engage the attention of Congress in the modification 
of the tarifif. Of these, tea and cofifee are the most prominent. They 
enter largely into the consumption of the country, and have become 
articles of necessity to all classes. A reduction, therefore, of the exist- 
ing duties will be felt as a common benefit, but like all other legislation 
connected with commerce, to be elBcacious and not injurious it should 
be gradual and certain. 

The public prosperity is evinced in the increased revenue arising 
from the sales of the public lands and in the steady maintenance of that 
produced by imposts and tonnage, notwithstanding the additional 
duties imposed by the act of 19th May, 1828, and the unusual importa- 
tions in the early part of that year. 

The balance in the Treasury on January i, 1829, was $5,972,435.81. 
The receipts of the current year are estimated at $24,602,230 and the 
expenditures for the same time at $26,164,595, leaving a balance in 
the Treasury on the ist of January next of $4,410,070.81. 

There will have been paid on account of the public debt during the 
present year the sum of $12,405,005.80, reducing the whole debt of the 
Government on the ist of January next to $48,565,406.50, including 
seven millions of 5 per cent, stock subscribed to the Bank of the 
United States, The payment on account of public debt made on the 
1st of July last was $8,715,462.87. 

I sue'jrest for your consideration the proprietv of setting apart an 
ample district west of the Mississippi, and without the limits of any 



192 History of the United States. 

State or Territory now formed, to be guaranteed to t'le Indian tribes 
as long as they shall occupy it, each tribe having a distinct control 
over the portion designated for its use. There they may be secured 
in the enjoyment of governments of their own choice, subject to no 
other control from the United States than such as may be necessary to 
preserve peace on the frontier and between the several tribes. There 
the benevolent may endeavor to teach them the arts of civilization, 
and, by promoting union and harmony among them, to raise up an 
interesting commonwealth, destined to perpetuate the race and to 
attest the humanity and justice of this Government. 

SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 6, 183O. 

An arrangement has been efifected with Great Britain in relation to 
the trade between the United States and her West India and North 
American colonies which has settled a question that has for years af- 
forded matter for contention and almost uninterrupted discussion, and 
has been the subject of no less than six negotiations, in a manner 
which promises results highly favorable to the parties. 

This arrangement secures to the United States every advantage 
asked by them, and which the state of the negotiation allow^ed us to 
insist upon. The trade will be placed upon a footing decidedly more 
favorable to this country than any on which it ever stood, and our 
commerce and navigation will enjoy in the colonial ports of Great 
Britain every privilege allowed to other nations. 

The injury to the commerce of the United States resulting from the 
exclusion of our vessels from the Black Sea and the previous footing 
of mere sufferance upon which even the limited trade enjoyed by us 
with Turkey has hitherto been placed have for a long time been a 
source of much solicitude to this Government, and several endeavors 
have been made to obtain a better state of things. Sensible of the 
importance of the object, I felt it my duty to leave no proper means 
unemployed to acquire for our flag the same privileges that are en- 
joyed by the principal powers of Europe. Commissioners were con- 
sequently appointed to open a negotiation with the Sublime Porte. 
Not long after the member of the commission who went directlv from 
the United States had sailed, the account of the treaty of Adrianople, 
by which one of the objects in view was supposed to be secured, 
reached this country. The Black Sea was understood to be opened to 
us. Tender the supposition that this was the case, the additional facili- 
ties to be derived from the establishment of commercial regulations 



Andrew Jackson. 193 

with the Porte were deemed of sufficient importance to require a 
prosecution of the negotiation as originally contemplated, it was 
therefore persevered in, and resulted in a treaty, which will be forth- 
with laid before the Senate. 

By its provisions a free passage is secured, without limitation of 
time, to the vessels of the United States to and from the Black Sea, 
including the navigation thereof, and our trade with Turkey is placed 
on the footing of the most favored nation. The latter is an arrange- 
ment wholly independent of the treaty of Adrianople, and the former 
derives much value, not only from the increased security which under 
any circumstances it would give to the right in cjuestion, but from the 
fact, ascertained in the course of the negotiation, that by the construc- 
tion put upon that treaty by Turkey the article relating to the passage 
of the Bosphorus is confined to nations having treaties with the Porte. 
The most friendly feelings appear to be entertained by the Sultan, and 
an enlightened disposition is evinced by him to foster the intercourse 
between the two countries by the most liberal arrangements. This 
disposition it will be our duty and interest to cherish. 

In connection with the condition of our finances, it affords me pleas- 
ure to remark that judicious and efficient arrangements have been 
made by the Treasury Department for securing the pecuniary responsi- 
bility of the public officers and the more punctual payment of the pub- 
lic dues. The Revenue Cutter Servace has been organized and placed 
on a good footing, and aided by an increase of inspectors at exposed 
points, and regulations adopted under the act of May, 1830, for the in- 
spection and appraisement of merchandise, has produced much im- 
provement in the execution of the laws and more security against the 
commission of frauds upon the revenue. Abuses in the allowances for 
fishing bounties have also been corrected, and a material saving in that 
branch of the service thereby effected. In addition to these improve- 
ments the system of expenditure for sick seamen belonging to the mer- 
chant service has been revised, and being rendered uniform and eco- 
nomical the benefits of the fund applicable to this object have been use- 
fully extended. 

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 6, 1 83 1. 

To China and the East Indies our commerce continues in its usual 
extent, and with increased facilities which the credit and capital of our 
merchants afford by substituting bills for payments in specie. A dar- 
ing outrage having been committed in those seas by the plunder of one 



194 History of the United States, 

of our merchantmen engaged in the pepper trade at a port in Sumatra, 
and the piratical perpetrators belonging to tribes in such a state of so- 
ciety that the usual course of proceedings between civilized nations 
could not be pursued, I forthwith dispatched a frigate with orders to 
require immediate satisfaction for the injury and indemnity to the 
sufferers. 

An important trade has been opened with mutual benefit from St. 
Louis, in the State of Missouri, by caravans to the interior Provinces 
of Mexico. This commerce is protected in its progress through the 
Indian countries by the troops of the United States, which have been 
permitted to escort the caravans beyond our boundaries to the settled 
part of the Mexican territory. 

Our treaty with this Republic continues to be faithfully observed, 
and promises a great and beneficial commerce between the two coun- 
tries — a commerce of the greatest inportance if the magnificent pro- 
ject of a ship canal through the dominions of that State from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific Ocean, now in serious contemplation shall be 
executed. 

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 4, 1832. 

Owing to the continued success of our commercial enterprise, which 
has enabled the merchants to fulfill their engagements with the Gov- 
ernment, the receipts from customs during the year will exceed the 
estimate presented at the last session, and with the other means of the 
Treasury will prove fully adequate not only to meet the increased ex- 
penditures resulting from the large appropriations made by Congress, 
but to provide for the payment of all the public debt which is at pres- 
ent redeemable. It is now estimated that the customs will yield to the 
Treasury during the present year upward of $28,000,000. The public 
lands, however, have proved less productive than was anticipated, and 
according to present information will not much exceed two millions. 
The expenditures for all objects other than the public debt are esti- 
mated to amount during the year to about sixteen millions and a half, 
while a still larger sum, viz., $18,000,000, will have been applied to 
the principal and interest of the public debt. 

It is expected, however, that in consequence of the reduced rates 
of duty which will take effect after the 3d of March next there will be 
a considerable falling ofif in the revenue from customs in the year 
1833. It will nevertheless be amply sufficient to provide for all the 
wants of the public service, estimated even upon a liberal scale, and for 



Andrew Jackson. 195 

the redemption and purchase of the remainder of the ptibHc debt. On 
the I St of January next the entire pubHc debt of the United States, 
funded ai?d unfunded, will be reduced to within a fraction of 
$7,000,000, of which $2,227,363 are not of right redeemable until the 
1st of January, 1834, and $4,735,296 not until the 2d of January, 1835. 
The commissioners of the sinking funds, however, being invested with 
full authority to purchase the debt as the market price, and the means 
of the Treasury being ample, it may be hoped that the whole will be 
extinguished within the year 1833. 

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1 833. 

The will of the American people, expressed through their unsolicited 
suffrages, calls me to pass through the solemnities preparatory to tak- 
ing upon myself the duties of President of the United States for an-' 
other term. 

In the domestic policy of this Government there are two objects 
which especially deserve the attention of the people and their repre- 
sentatives, and which have been and will continue to be the subjects 
of my increasing solicitude. They are the preservation of the rights 
of the several States and the integrity of the Union. 

FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 3, 1833. 

It is my duty on this occasion to call your attention to the destruc- 
tion of the public building occupied by the Treasury Department, 
which happened since the last adjournment of Congress. I take 
pleasure, however, in stating here that by the laudable exertions of 
the officers of the Department and many of the citizens of the District 
but few papers were lost, and none that will materially affect the pub- 
lic interest. 

The public convenience requires that another building should be 
erected as soon as practicable, and in providing for it it will be ad- 
visable to enlarge in some manner the accommodations for the public 
officers of the several Departments, and to authorize the erection of 
suitable depositories for the safe-keeping of the public documents and 
records. 

Since the last adjournment of Congress the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury has directed the money of the United States to be deposited in 
certain State bank? desijernated bv him, and he will immcdiatelv lay 
before you his reasons for this direction. I concur with him entirely 



196 History of the United States. 

in the view he has taken of the subject, and some months before the 
removal 1 urged upon the Department the propriety of taking that 
step. The near approach of the day on which the charter will expire, 
as well as the conduct of the bank, appeared to me to call for this 
measure upon the high considerations of public interest and public 
duty. The extent of its misconduct, however, although known to be 
great, was not at that time fully developed by proof. It was not until 
late in the month of August that I received from the Government di- 
rectors an official report establishing beyond question that this great 
and powerful institution had been actively engaged in attempting to 
influence the elections of the public officers by means of its money, 
and that, in violation of the express provisions of its charter, it had 
by a formal resolution placed its funds at the disposition of its presi- 
dent to be employed in sustaining the political power of the bank. A 
copy of this resolution is contained in the report of the Government 
directors before referred to, and however the object may be disguised 
by cautious language, no one can doubt that this money was in truth 
intended for electioneering purposes, and the particular uses to which 
it was proved to have been applied abundantly show that it was so 
understood. Not only was the evidence complete as to the past 
application of the money and power of the bank to electioneering pur- 
poses, but that the resolution of the board of directors authorized the 
same course to be pursued in future. 

It being thus established by unquestionable proof that the Bank of 
the United States was converted into a permanent electioneering en- 
gine, it appeared to me that the path of duty which the executive 
department of the Government ought to pursue was not doubtful. As 
by the terms of the bank charter no officer but the Secretary of the 
Treasury could remove the deposits, it seemed to me that this author- 
ity ought to be at once exerted to deprive that great corporation of 
the support and countenance of the Government in such an use of its 
funds and such an exertion of its power. In this point of the case 
the question is distinctly presented whether the people of the I'nited 
States are to govern through representatives chosen by their unbiased 
sufifragfes or whether the money and power of a great corporation are 
to be secretly exerted to influence their judgment and control their 
decisions. It must now be determined whether the bank is to have 
its candidates for all offices in the country, from the highest to the 
lowest, or whether candidates on both sides of political questions shall 
be brought forward as heretofore and supported by the usual means. 



Andrew Jackson, " 197 

At this time the efforts of the bank to control pubHc opinion, 
through the distresses of some and the fears of others, are equally 
apparent, and, if possible, more objectionable. By a curtailment of 
'its accommodations more rapid than any emergency requires, and 
even while it retains specie to an almost unprecedented amount in its 
vaults, it is attempting to produce great embarrassment in one portion 
of the community, while through presses known to have been sus- 
tained by its money it attempts by unfounded alarms to create a panic 
in all. 



Information having been received (June 21, 1834) of the death of 
General Lafayette, the President considers it due to his own feelings as 
well as to the character and services of that lamented man to announce 
the event to the Army and Navy. 

Lafayette was a citizen of France, but he was the distinguished 
friend of the United States. In early life he embarked in that 
contest which secured freedom and independence to our country. His 
services and sacrifices constitute a part of our Revolutionary history, 
and his memory will be second only to that of Washington in the 
hearts of the American people. In his own country and in ours he 
was the zealous and uniform friend and advocate of rational liberty. 
Consistent in his principles and conduct, he never during a long life 
committed an act which exposed him to just accusation or which will 
expose his memory to reproach. Living at a period of great excite- 
ment and of moral and political revolutions, engaged in many of the 
important events which fixed the attention of the world, and invited 
to guide the destinies of France at two of the most momentous eras oi 
her history, his political integrity and personal disinterestedness have 
not been called in question. Happy in such life, he has been happy 
in his death. He has been taken from the theater of action with 
faculties imimpaired, with a reputation unquestioned, and an object 
of veneration wherever civilization and the rights of man have ex- 
tended; and mourning, as we mav and must, his departure, let us re- 
joice that this associate of Washington has gone, as we humbly hope, 
to rejoin his illustrious commander in the fullness of days and of honor. 

He came in his youth to defend our countrv. He came in the ma- 
turitv of his age to witness her growth in all the elements of prosneritv. 
and while witnessing these he received those testimonials of national 



iqS History of the United States. 

gratitiulc which proved how strong was his hold upon the affections 
of the American people. 

One melancholy duty remains to be performed. The last major- 
general of the Revolutionary army has died. Himself a young and 
humble participator in the struggles of that period, the President feels 
called on as well by personal as public considerations to direct that 
appropriate honors be paid to the memory of this distinguished patriot 
and soldier. He therefore orders that the same honors be rendered 
upon this occasion at the different military and naval stations as were 
observed upon the decease of Washington, the Father of his Country, 
and his contemporary in arms. 

In ordering this homage to be paid to the memory of one so 
eminent in the field, so wise in council, so endeared in private life, and 
so well and favorably known to both hemispheres the President feels 
assured that he is anticipating the sentiments not of the Army and 
Navy only, but of the whole American people. 

SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER, 1834. 

In the midst of her internal difficulties the Queen of Spain has 
ratified the convention for the payment of the claims of our citizens 
arising since 1819. It is in the course of execution on her part, and 
a copy of it is now laid before you for Such legislation as may be found 
necessary to enable those interested to derive the benefits of it. 

Yielding to the force of circumstances and to the wise counsels of 
time and experience, that power has finally resolved no longer to oc- 
cupy the unnatural position in which she stood to the new Govern- 
ments established in this hemisphere. I have the great satisfaction 
of stating to you that in preparing the way for the restoration of 
harmony between those who have sprung from the same ancestors, 
who are allied by common interests, 'profess the same religion, and 
speak the same language the United States have been actively instru- 
mental. Our efforts to effect this good work will be persevered in 
W'hile they are deemed useful to the parties and our entire disinterested- 
ness continues to be felt and understood. 

It becomes my unpleasant duty to inform you that this pacific and 
highly gratifying picture of our foreign relations does not include 
those with France at this time. 

There is but one point in the controversy, and upon that the whole 
civilized world must pronoimce France to be in the wrong. We insist 
that she shall pay us a sum of money which she has acknowledged to 



Andrew Jackson. 199 

be due, and of the justice of this demand there can be but one opinion 
among mankind. True policy would seem to dictate that the question 
at issue should be kept thus disencumbered and that not the slightest 
pretense should be given to France to persist in her refusal to make 
payment by any act on our part affecting the interests of her people. 
The question should be left, as it is now, in such an attitude that when 
France fulfills her treaty stipulations all controversy will be at an end. 

It is my conviction that the United States ought to insist on a 
prompt execution of the treaty, and in case it be refused or longer 
delayed take redress into their own hands. After the delay on the 
part of France of a quarter of a century in acknowledging these claims 
by treaty, it is not to be tolerated that another quarter of a century 
is to be wasted in negotiating about the payment. The laws of nations 
provide a remedy for such occasions. It is a well-settled principle ot 
the international code that where one nation owes another a liquidated 
debt which it refuses or neglects to pay the aggrieved party may seize 
on the property belonging to the other, its citizens or subjects, suffi- 
cient to pay the debt without giving just cause of war. This remedy 
has been repeatedly resorted to, and recently by France herself toward 
Portugal, under circumstances less unquestionable. 

The time at which resort should be had to this or any other mode 
of redress is a point to be decided by Congress. If an appropriation 
shall not be made by the French Chambers at their next session, it 
may justly be concluded that the Government of France has finally 
determined to disregard its own solemn undertaking and refuse to pay 
an acknowledged debt. In that event everv' day's delay on our part 
will be a stain upon our national honor, as well as a denial of justice 
to our injured citizens. Prompt measures, when the refusal of France 
shall be complete, will not only be most honorable and just, but will 
have the best efifect upon our national character. 

Circumstances make it my duty to call the attention of Congress to 
the Bank of the United States. Created for the convenience of the 
Government, that institution has become the sourge of the people. 
Its interference to postpone the payment of a portion of the national 
debt that it might retain the public money appropriated for that pur- 
pose to strengthen it in a political contest, the extraordinary exten- 
sion and contraction of its accommodations to the community, its 
corrupt and partisan loans, its exclusion of the public directors from a 
knowledge of its most important proceedings, the unlimited authority 
conferred on the president to expend its funds in hiring writers and 



200 History of the United States. 

procuring- the execution of printing, and the use made of that author- 
ity, the retention of the pension money and books after the selection 
of new agents, the groundless claim to heavy damages in consequence 
of the protest of the bill drawn on the French Government, have 
through various channels been laid before Congress. Immediately 
after the close of the last session the bank, through its president, an- 
nounced its ability and readiness to abandon the system of unparalleled 
curtailment and the interruption of domestic exchanges which it had 
practiced upon from the ist of August, 1833, to the 30th of June, 1834, 
and to extend its accommodations to the community. The grounds 
assumed in this annunciation amounted to an acknowledgment that the 
curtailment, in the extent to which it had been carried, was not neces- 
sary to the safety of the bank, and had been persisted in merely to 
induce Congress to grant the prayer of the bank in its memorial rela- 
tive to the removal of the deposits and to give it a new charter. They 
were substantially a confession that all the real distresses which in- 
dividuals and the country had endured for the preceding six or eight 
months had been needlessly produced by it, with the view of afifecting 
through the sufferings of the people the legislative action of Congress. 
It is a subject of congratulation that Congress and the country had 
the virtue and firmness to bear the infliction, that the energies of our 
people soon found relief from this wanton tyranny in vast importa- 
tions of the precious metals from almost every part of the world, and 
that at the close of Lliis tremendous effort to control our Government 
the bank found itself powerless and no longer able to loan out its sur- 
plus means. The community had learned to manage its affairs with- 
out its assistance, and trade had already found new auxiliaries, so 
that on the ist of October last the extraordinary spectacle was pre- 
sented of a national bank more than one-half of whose capital was 
either lying unproductive in its vaults or in the hands of foreign 
bankers. 

The progress of our gold coinage is credible to the officers of the 
Mint, and promises in a short period to furnish the country with a 
sound and portable currency, which will much diminish the inconveni- 
ence to travelers of the want of a general paper currency should the 
State banks be incapable of furnishing it. Those institutions have al- 
ready shown themselves competent to purchase and furnish domestic 
exchange for the convenience of trade at reasonable rates, and not a 
doubt is entertained that in a short period all th.e wants of the country 
in bank accommodations and exchange will be supplied as promptly 



Andrew Jackson. 20I 

and as cheaply as they have heretofore been by the Bank of the United 
States, if the several States shall be induced gradually to reform 
their banking systems and prohibit the issue of all small notes, we 
shall in a few years have a currency as sound and as little liable to 
fluctuations as any other commercial country. 

SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 7, 1835. 

Since my last annual communication all the remains of the public 
debt have been redeemed, or money has been placed in deposit for 
this purpose whenever the creditors choose to receive it. All the 
other pecuniary engagements of the Government have been honorably 
and promptly fulfilled, and there will be a balance in the Treasury at 
the close of the present year of about $19,000,000. It is believed that 
after meeting all outstanding and unexpended appropriations there will 
remain near eleven millions to be applied to any new objects which 
Congress may designate or to the more rapid execution of the works 
already in progress. In aid of these objects, and to satisfy the cur- 
rent expenditures of the ensuing year, it is estimated that there will 
be received from various sources twenty millions more in 1836. 

Among the evidences of the increasing prosperity of the country, 
not the least gratifying is that afiforded by the receipts from the sales 
of the public lands, which amount in the present year to the unex- 
pected sum of $11,000,000. 

The extinction of the public debt having taken place, there is no 
longer any use for the ofifices of Commissioners of Loans and of the 
Sinking Fund. I recommend, therefore, that they be abolished, and 
that proper measures be taken for the transfer to the Treasury De- 
partment of any funds, books, and papers connected with the opera- 
tions of those offices, and that the proper power be given to that De- 
partment for closing finally any portion of their business which may 
remain to be settled. 

It is also incumbent on Congress in guarding the pecuniary in- 
terests of the country to discontinue by such a law as was passed in 
t8i2 the receipt of the bills of the Bank of the United States in pay- 
ment of the public revenue, and to provide for the designation of an 
aeent whose duty it shall be to take charge of the books and stock of 
the United States in that institution, and to close all connection with it 
after the 3d of March. 1836. when its charter expires. In making 
provision in regard to the disposition of this stock it will be essential to 



202 History of the United States. 

define clearly and strictly the duties and powers of the officer charged 
with that branch of the pubUc service. 

The plan of removing the aboriginal people who yet remain within 
the settled portions of the United States to the country west of the 
Mississippi River approaches its consummation. 

It becomes my painful duty (June 30, 1836) to announce the melan- 
choly intelligence of the death of James Madison, ex-President of the 
United States. He departed this life at half-past 6 o'clock on the 
morning of the 28th instant, full of years and full of honors. 

EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 5, 1836. 

With France our diplomatic relations have been resumed, and under 
circumstances which attest the disposition of both Governments to 
preserve a mutually beneficial intercourse and foster those amicable 
feelings which are so strongly required by the true interests of the two 
countries. 

You will perceive from the report of the Secretary of the Treasury 
that the financial means of the country continue to keep pace with its 
improvement in all other respects. The receipts into the Treasury 
during the present year will amount to about $47,691,898; those from 
customs being estimated at $22,523,151, those from lands at about 
$24,000,000, and the residue from miscellaneous sources. The ex- 
penditures for all objects during the year are estimated not to exceed 
$32,000,000, which will leave a balance in the Treasury for public 
purposes on the ist day of January next of about $41,723,959. This 
sum, with the exception of $5,000,000, will be transferred to the sev- 
eral States in accordance with the provisions of the act regulating the 
deposits of the public money. 

The unexpended balances of appropriation on the ist day of Janu- 
ary next are estimated at $14,636,062, exceeding by $9,636,062 the 
amount which will be left in the deposit banks, subject to the draft of 
the Treasurer of the United States, after the contemplated transfers 
to the several States are made. If, therefore, the future receipts 
should not be sufficient to meet these outstanding and future appro- 
priations, there may be soon a necessity to use a portion of the funds 
deposited with the States. 

Variableness must ever be the characteristic of a currency of which 
the precious metals are not the chief ingredient, or which can be ex- 
panded or contracted without regard to the principles that regulate 
the value of those metals as a standard in the general trade of the 



/ 






■y.^ ■' d,,..:. 



/. - ■ ' . ^/ . z^, #; ••>>:;.../ 

■ ..^uy,-(. -•-.•,., ■■^,' ..■/.. Ww^.«vy :y M> A},.:/f/, ./>/,./ ',,/.- 
-.../ ,/ -. X .'■/ ./-?;.. ,-:^>/ /...y^v .., /C ,<»^:.. /,; 






- r 



:i,.,^-..,..-U.. 


■y '..../. ,..,/^.. .•.,.,.„. ,. ..... ,...,. ■ 


:■ ,'.' ■ / ... -f/., , 


.,-/,.^ ,y ;?.-,_■ 


' .. •-',/ , ■.,', ./.,... .. .'.. . 


'• - . • ■ /K, 


■^ .fr^//.-. . .' .- 


,v..,. f, ...n..-,:-, -W.. .. /-• ■ , 


-/ ■ ' y. .., ;, ,■ .-, 


/,;«/.. .,.-/ ■ 


.. . .„; //.,^.. ' :// - ... . .., 


-y- /. ' .---....• .././. 


:^i ,.'• // • -' ,' 


,. ,. ., - ,/,> i. -,/.., . ', -... , 


'■ ' - ■ / ..,/■ 


M-././-- . /'-.'• 


./ ■ . .. .,.. ..-,/-,:... ...;..' , . 


• .•-. V.,..;,/.....^ 


'/ - *' 


^ . / 
^ .' ../ .v.fr. -.^^^-y ...^^■, . .... 


■ •/(.,/ //,,.. 


■/ / -■.- 


/ ,-/./ 


. ' / 






-^ 


/ yy.:-„;.,:y Z^/,-,.^/ .//.,.., 


. ...' ':. ,^^.././ //. 


— ■ 


,•>-,.-, .->..- ^/ ,,,• 



c^ci^ #■ y^jXA-t-/..^ iJ>^ /u y^^Jt- r!i,.;.-r iCerr! -Jnr ^jn^y.-, .■ ^, // f^ 



PROCLAMATION BY PRESIDENT ANDREW JACKSON ABOUT 
THE PUBLIC LANDS OF ALABAMA. 



/ 



//, , ;^, ,y /^^.•///.'(^■'/^•A . //■'/ 






I • — » ' ' I -^ 






PRESIDENT JACKSON'S SIGNATURE ON A STATE DOCUMENT. 



Andrew Jackson. 205 

world. With us bank issues constitute such a currency, and must 
ever do so until they are made dependent on those just proportions of 
gold and silver as a circulating medium which experience has proved 
to be necessary not only in this but in all other commercial countries. 
Where those proportions are not infused into the circulation and do 
not control it, it is manifest that prices must vary according to the 
tide of bank issues, and the value and stability of property must stand 
exposed to, all the uncertainty which attends the administration of in- 
stitutions that are constantly liable to the temptation of an interest 
distinct from that of the community in which they are established. 

The progress of an expansion, or rather a depreciation, of the cur- 
rency by excessive bank issues is always attended by a loss to the 
laboring classes. This portion of the community have neither time 
nor opportunity to watch the ebbs and flows of the money market. 
Engaged from day to day in their useful toils, they do not perceive 
that although their v/ages are nominally the same, or even somewhat 
higher, they are greatly reduced in fact by the rapid increase of a 
spurious currency, which, as it appears to make money abound, they 
are at first inclined to consider a blessing. It is not sO' with the 
speculator, by whom this operation is better understood, and is made 
to contribute to hiS advantage. It is not until the prices of the neces- 
saries of life become so dear that the laboring classes can not supply 
their wants out of their wages that the wages rise and gradually reach 
a justly proportioned rate to that of the products of their labor. 

It was in view of these evils, together with the dangerous power 
wielded by the Bank of the United States and its repugnance to our 
Constitution, that I was induced to exert the power conferred upon me 
by the American people to prevent the continuance of that institution. 
But although various dangers to our republican institutions have been 
obviated by the failure of that bank to extort from the Government a 
renewal of its charter, it is obvious that little has been accomplished 
except a salutary change of public opinion toward restoring to the 
country the sound currency provided for in the Constitution. 



At the beginning CFebruary 6, 1837) of this session Congress 
was informed that our claims upon Mexico had not been 
adjusted, but that notwithstanding the irritating efifect upon her 
councils of the movements in Texas, I hoped, by great for- 



2o6 History of the United States. 

bearance, to avoid the necessity of again bringing the subject 
of them to notice. That hope has been disappointed. Hav- 
ing in vain urged upon that Government the justice of those 
claims and my indispensable obligation to insist that there should be 
" no further delay in the acknowledgment, if not in the redress, of the 
injuries complained of," my duty requires that the whole subject 
should be presented, as it now is, for the action of Congress, whose ex- 
clusive right it is to decide on the further measures of redress to be em- 
ployed. The length of time since some of the injuries have been com- 
mitted, the repeated and unavailing applications for redress, the wan- 
ton character of some of the outrages upon the property and persons 
of our citizens, upon the officers and f^ag of the United States, inde- 
pendent of recent insults to this Government and people by the late 
extraordinary Mexican minister, would justify in the eyes of all na- 
tions immediate war. That remedy, however, should not be used by 
just and generous nations, confiding in their strength for injuries com- 
mitted, if it can be honorably avoided; and it has occurred to me that, 
considering the present embarrassed condition of that country, we 
should act with both wasdom and moderation by giving to Mexico one 
more opportunity to atone for the past before we take redress into our 
own hands. To avoid all misconception on the part of Mexico, as 
well as to protect our own national character from reproach, this op- 
portunity should be given wdth the avowed design and full preparation 
to take immediate satisfaction if it should not be obtained on a repeti- 
tion of the demand for it. To this end I recommend that an act be 
passed authorizing reprisals, and the use of the naval force of the 
United States by the Executive against Mexico to enforce them, in 
the event of a refusal by the Mexican Government to come to an ami- 
cable adjustment of the matters in controversy between us upon an- 
other demand thereof made from on board one of our vessels of war 
on the coast of Mexico. 

The documents transmitted, with those accompanying my message 
in answer to a call of the House of Representatives of the 17th ultimo-, 
will enable Congress to judge of the propriety of the course hereto- 
fore pursued and to decide upon the necessity of that now recom- 
mended. 

If these views should fail to meet the concurrence of Congress, and 
that body be able to find in the condition of the afYairs between the 
two countries, as disclosed by the accompanying documents, with 
those referred to, any well-grounded reasons to hope that an adjust- 



Andrew Jackson. 207 

ment of the controversy between them can be efifected without a resort 
to the measures I have felt it my duty to recommend, they may be 
assured of my co-operation in any other course that shall be deemed 
honorable and proper. 

The State of Texas having- established and maintained an in- 
dependent government capable of performing those duties, for- 
eign and domestic, which appertain to independent governments, 
and it appearing that there is no longer any reasonable prospect 
of the successful prosecution of the war by Mexico against said 
State, it is expedient and proper and in conformity with the laws 
of nations and the practice of this Government in like cases that the 
independent political existence of said State be acknowledged by the 
Government of the United States." Regarding these proceedings as 
a virtual decision of the question submitted by me to Congress, I think 
it my duty to acquiesce therein, and therefore I nominate Alcee 
La Branche, of Louisiana, to be charge d'affaires to the Republic of 
Texas. 



Whereas a convention assembled (December 10, 1832) in the State 
of South Carolina have passed an ordinance by which they declared 
" that the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United 
States purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on 
the importation of foreign commodities, and now having- actual opera- 
tion and effect within the United States, and more especially " two acts 
for the same purposes passed on the 29th of May, 1828, and on the 14th 
of July, 1832, " are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United 
States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof, and are null 
and void and no law," nor binding on the citizens of that State or its 
ofificers ; and by the said ordinance it is further declared to be unlawful 
for any of the constituted authorities of the State or of the LTnited 
States to enforce the payment of the duties imposed by the said acts 
within the same State, and that it is the duty of the legislature to pass 
such laws as may be necessary to give full effect to the said ordi- 
nance; and 

Whereas bv the said ordinance it is further ordained that in no case 
of law or equity decided in the courts of said State wherein shall be 
drawn m question the validity of the said ordinance, or of the acts of 
the legislature that may be passed to give it effect, or of the said laws 
of the United States, no appeal shall be allowed to the Supreme Court 



2o8 History of the United States. 

of the United States, nor shall any copy of the record be permitted or 
allowed for that purpose, and that any person attempting to take such 
appeal shall be punished as for contempt of court; and, finally, the said 
ordinance declares that the people of South Carolina will maintain the 
said ordinance at every hazard, and that they will consider the pas- 
sage of any act by Congress abolishing or closing the ports of the said 
State or otherwise obstructing the free ingress or egress of vessels to 
and from the said ports, or any other act of the Federal Government 
to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, 
or to enforce the said acts otherwise than through the civil tribunals 
of the country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South 
Carolina in the Union, and that the people of the said State will thence- 
forth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain 
or preserve their political connection with the people of the other 
States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate government 
and do all other acts and things which sovereign and independent 
states may of right do; and 

Whereas the said ordinance prescribes to the people of South Caro- 
lina a course of conduct in direct violation of their duty as citizens of 
the United States, contrary to the laws of their country, subversive of 
its Constitution, and having for its object the destruction of the 
Union — 

To preserve this bond of our political existence from destruction, to 
maintain inviolate this state of national honor and prosperity, and to 
justify the confidence my fellow-citizens have reposed in me, I, An- 
drew Jackson, President of the United States, have thought proper to 
issue this my proclamation, stating my views of the Constitution and 
laws applicable to the measures adopted by the convention of South 
Carolina and to the reasons they have put forth to sustain them, de- 
claring the course which duty will require me to pursue, and, appeal- 
ing to the understanding and patriotism of the people, warn them of 
the consequences that must inevitably result from an observance of the 
dictates of the convention. 

I consider the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed 
by one State, incompatible zvith the existence of the Union, contradicted 
expressly hy the letter of the Constitution, unauthorised by its spirit, in- 
consistent ivith every principle on tvhich it zvas founded, and destructive 
of the great object for tvhich it was formed. 

Fellow-citizens, the momentous case is before you. On your undi- 
vided support of your Government depends the decision of the great 



Andrew Jackson. 209 

question it involves — • whether your sacred Union will be preserved 
and the blessing it secures to us as one people shall be perpetuated. 
No one can doubt that the unanimity with which that decision will be 
expressed will be such as to inspire new confidence in republican insti- 
tutions, and that the prudence, the wisdom, and the courage which it 
will bring to their defense will transmit them unimpaired and invigor- 
ated to our children. 

May the Great Ruler of Nations grant that the signal blessings with 
which He has favored ours may not, by the madness of party or per- 
sonal ambition, be disregarded and lost; and may His wise providence 
bring those who have produced this crisis to see the folly before they 
feel the misery of civil strife, and inspire a returning veneration for 
that Union which, if we may dare to penetrate His designs. He has 
chosen as the only means of attaining the high destinies to which we 
may reasonably aspire. 



LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. 

ANDREW JACKSON was born March 15, 1767, in the Wax- 
haw Settlement, South Carolina. He was a son of Andrew 
Jackson, an Irishman who came to America in 1765 and died in 
1767. His mother was Elizabeth Hutchinson. Little is known about 
his early education. The historian Parton says: " He learned to read, 
to write and cast accounts — little more." He studied law at Sahsbury, 
North Carolina, about 1785, and removed to Nashville, Tenn., in 1788 
where he practiced law. About 1791 he married Mrs. Rachel Robards 
whose maiden name was Rachel Donelson and whose first husband 
was living and was obtaining a divorce which was legally completed 
in 1793. The marriage ceremony between her and Mr. Jackson 
was again performed in 1794. In 1796 he was one of the convention 
which framed the Constitution of Tennessee, and in the fall of that year 
was sent as Representative to Congress from Tennessee, which was 
then entitled to but one member. In the Presidential election of 1796 
he supported Thomas Jefferson and was sent to the United States Sen- 
ate from Tennessee in 1797. He resigned his seat in the Senate in 1798 
and became judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, from 1798 to 
1804. In June, 1812. after war had been declared against Great Brit- 
ain. General Jackson, who hnd several years previously been made 
major-general of mditia, offered his services and those of 2,500 volun- 



210 History of the United States. 

teers. With 2,070 men he was ordered to New Orleans and advanced as 
far as Natchez when he received an order dated F'ebruary 6, 1813, by 
which his troops were dismissed from pubhc service. He took the 
field against the Creek Indians October, 1813, and defeated them at 
Talladega in November. Through this Creek War, which closed in 
1814, he Ijecame very popular and was, in May, 1814, appointed a 
major-general in the regular army. He was soon after ordered to 
the Gulf of Mexico to oppose an expected invasion of the English. 
Pensacola, which belonged to Spain, but was used as a base of opera- 
tions by the British, he seized in November. He moved his army 
to New Orleans about December ist, when he defeated the English 
in two engagements, and on January 8, 181 5, won his famous victory. 
This was the last battle of the war, a treaty of peace having been signed 
December 24, 1814. From 181 7 to 18 18 he waged a successful war 
against the Seminoles in Florida. He took Pensacola and executed 

two British subjects, Ambrister and Arbuthnot, accused of inciting 
the Indians to hostile acts against the Americans. In 182 1 he was 
appointed governor of Florida. In 1823 he was elected a Senator of 
the United States and nominated for the presidency by the legislature 
of Tennessee. John 0. Adams, Henry Clay and William H. Crawford 
ran against him. Neither candidate having a majority of electoral 
votes the election devolved on the House of Representatives which re- 
sulted in the choice of John Quincy Adams. In 1828 Jackson was 
elected President, defeating Adams for re-election. He was re-elected 
in 1832, defeating Henry Clay. He retired to his home in Tennessee, 
March 4, 1837, and died at The Hermitage, June 8, 1845 and was 
buried there. 



Martin Van Buren. 



211 



,^^^f^J0!:^s^ ^^.^.-..^^^^ 




HOME OF MARTIN VAN BUREN AT KINDERHOOK, NEW YORK. 



CHAPTER VIII 



MARTIN VAN BUREN, THE FIRST POLITICIAN PRESIDENT. 



By Frank A. Vanderlip, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. 



T N estimating the political character of Martin Van Buren, and in attempt- 
^ ing to gauge the place which he occupies in the line of Presidents, it is at 
least easy to see that he does not stand among the mediocre men whom chance 
has placed in the White House. His elevation to the. Presidency was not an 
accident; it was a direct and logical sequence; but the moving springs were 
not to be found, as with every previous President except Jackson, in pre- 
eminent qualities of statesmanship. There is no gainsaying that the line of 
Presidents up to Jackson's time was a line of statesmen in the broadest sense. 



212 History of the United States. 

With the election of Van Buren came the first success of a politician. Jack- 
son was not a statesman, and his election was largely the work of the poli- 
ticians, but he was a strong character owing little of his political success to 
his skill in machine politics. With Van Buren's election came the triumph of 
political machinery, as indeed was his whole political career, and while he 
showed under the responsibilities of the Presidency qualities in which his friends 
saw evidences of high statesmanship, his elevation to that office was the final 
fruit of a lifetime of the shrewdest political maneuvering, the keenest knowl- 
edge of the methods of political combination, and of the theories of political 
rewards and proscriptions. 

Van Buren recognized that a gap lay between him and his predecessors 
when he said in his first inaugural, that he stood as the representative of a 
new generation, that the Revolution had been achieved at the period of his 
birth, and that he belonged to a later age, and was the first President that 
had had no part in that historic period. 

His political life was one of steady and logical advancement, but he did 
not come forward from local to state prominence, and from state to national 
position, as an exponent and advocate of any great principle or political con- 
viction. In his career as a lawyer of fair ability, a senator of his State, a 
member of the United States Senate, as Governor of New York, as Prime 
Minister of Jackson's cabinet, as foreign envoy, and as Vice-President, he 
never once stood for great political principles. He was not inconsistent; he 
was silent. Always the clever courteous gentleman, always anxious to avoid 
controversy, and showing a remarkable genius for combinations, he built up 
a machine which moved forward to political prominence sometimes himself 
and sometimes others, but which he always held compactly together by the 
bonds of self interest, by a system of political rewards for the friends of the 
machine, and political exclusion for its enemies. 

The strong friendship which Andrew Jackson held for his Secretary of 
State was one of the most important causes leading to Van Buren's election 
to succeed Jackson. There had been for several years a perfectly clear un- 
derstanding between the two men that the younger was to be a political 
legatee, and the immense personal popularity of Jackson made the legacy of 
his good will a thing of the greatest importance. When there was added 
to that the strength of the perfect political machine of which Van Buren 
was the master, his nomination and his election was not difficult. 

He drew great strength from the fact that Jackson's political mantle was 
looked upon as having been laid upon his shoulders. Even at the time of 
the inauguration, Jackson seemed the central figure rather than the new 
President, and the temper of the inaugural address was distinctly one of 




7 



/7 T--^^^^-^^"" u<^^^^ 



EIGHTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 







■:.^'^' ~"''- 




1 


^ 


1 






^^ 1 


1 

1 
f 


^ 


_ '^^.^^ 




\l 


f 



« < 



K S 



M E-' 



Martin Van Buren. 215 

subordination to his more popular predecessor. Jackson's farewell address 
was taken up with a glorification of his financial views, and with a parting 
shot at the defunct national bank. Hardly had the people ceased reading 
that farewell message in which there was no comprehension of the trouble that 
was to come, than a financial crash, such as the country had never known, 
broke with tremendous fury, and the new President was brought face to 
face with the most trying of situations. The tremendous speculative bubble, 
which had been inflating for years, burst in a moment. The situation was 
made vastly mor esevere by some of the features of Jackson's empirical system 
of finance, and the blame for it all came down upon the head of Jackson's 
successor. He now rose to a height that had not at all been measured by 
anything in his previous career. He faced an angry and excited nation with 
calmness and dignity. He would not be driven into hasty and unadvised 
action for the relief of a situation that had become distressing in the extreme. 
He carried this calmness in the midst of the terrific uproar that came about 
his head to a degree that left doubt as to whether he could show anything 
more than the phlegmatic characteristics of his Dutch ancestors, refusing for 
a time even to call any extra session of Congress to consider means of relief. 
He did finally convene Congress and presented his scheme of completely 
divorcing government finances from the banks, the scheme which subsequently 
developed into the present sub-treasury system. It was not original with 
the President, but had been proposed by a Virginia representative, and re- 
jected by a decisive vote of the President's party in the House as early as 1834. 
It was again rejected after being brought forward in Mr. Van Buren's mes- 
sage to Congress, but at the next session was passed in practically the same 
form as was at first proposed and endures to the present time. 

Upon this single act must rest Van Buren's claims to a statesmanship which 
originates great public measures. He accomplished what he undoubtedly 
believed to be a most important financial step — the divorcing of government 
finance from the banks. Had he been a wiser statesman, had he possessed a 
more comprehensive knowledge of practical finance, he would have found a 
way for securing the safety at which he aimed, with vastly less hardship upon 
the commercial interests than this plan of locking up all government fund? 
in idleness. 

Van Buren has been blamed for the errors of others, quite as much as for 
his own mistakes. He inherited the presidency because of Jackson's good 
will, and almost immediately lost all hold on public confidence in a large 
measure because of errors his predecessor had made. He advanced to public 
distinction with the aid of a shrewdly managed political machine, and after 
he reached the goal of his ambitions was unable to shake ofif, try as he might, 



2l6 



History of the United States. 



a reputation for dexterity and intrigue, which his later years did not merit. 
His introduction of the spoils system into politics has been none too severely 
condemned, but his use of the public patronage after he became President was 
less objectionable than were the actions of some of his contemporaries. At 
all times he showed admirable courage, and great political sagacity. 

His political sagacity, indeed, seemed at times to be the chief obstacle in 
the way of his being a great statesman. His state papers show that he could 
not bring himself to make unqualified statements, that he preferred vague- 
ness, that he seemed always to write with a view to possible political con- 
tingencies. While he was always able to withstand the thoughtless rush of 
popular sentiment with dignity and firmness, that same quality of tempera- 
ment seemed to keep him from a hearty and quick sympathy with the temper of 
the day, and left him without that close touch with affairs which stood in the 
way of his popularity 



Martin Van Buren. 217 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1837-1841. 



By Martin Van Buren. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1837. 

IN receiving from tlie people the sacred trust twice confided to my 
illustrious predecessor, and which he has discharged so faith- 
fully and so well, I know that I can not expect to perform the 
arduous task with equal ability and success. But united as I have 
been in his counsels, a daily witness of his exclusive and unsurpassed 
devotion to his country's welfare, agreeing with him in sentiments 
which his countrymen have warmly supported, and permitted to take 
largely of his confidence, I may hope that somewhat of the same cheer- 
ing approbation will be found to attend upon my path. 

The last, perhaps the greatest, of the prominent sources of discord 
and disaster supposed to lurk in our political condition was the insti- 
tution of domestic slavery. Our forefathers were deeply impressed 
with the delicacy of this subject, and they treated it with a forbearance 
so evidently wise that in spite of every sinister foreboding it never until 
the present period disturbed the tranquility of our common country. 
Such a result was sufificient evidence of the justice and the patriotism 
of their course. It is evidence not to be mistaken that an adherence 
to it can prevent all embarrassment from this as well as from every 
other anticipated cause of difficulty or danger. Have not recent 
events made it obvious to the slightest reflection that the least devia- 
tion from this spirit of forbearance will be injurious to every interest, 
that of humanity included? Amidst the violence of excited passions 
this generous and fraternal feeling has been sometimes disregarded; 
and standing before my countrymen, in this high place of honor and 
of trust, I can not refrain from invoking my fellow-citizens never to 
be deaf to its dictates. Perceiving before my election the deep interest 
this subject was beginning to excite, I believed it a solemn duty fully 
to make known my sentiments in regard to it, and now, when every 
motive for misrepresentation has passed away, I trust that they will be 



2i8 History of the United States. 

candidly weighed and understood. At least they will be my stand- 
ard of conduct in the path before me. I then declared that if the 
desire of those of my countrymen who were favorable to my election 
was gratified " I must go into the Presidential chair the inflexible and 
uncompromising opponent of every attempt on the part of Congress to 
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia against the wishes of the 
slaveholding States, and also with a determination equally decided to 
resist the slightest interference with it in the States where it exists." 
I submitted also to my fellow-citizens, with fullness and frankness, the 
reasons which led me to this determination. The result authorizes me 
to believe that they were approved and were confided in by a majority 
of the people of the United States, including those whom they most 
immediately afTect. It now only remains to add that no bill conflict- 
ing with these views can ever receive my constitutional sanction. 
These opinions have been adopted in the firm belief that they are in ac- 
cordance with the spirit that actuated the venerated fathers of the Re- 
public, and that succeeding experience has proved them to be humane, 
patriotic, expedient, honorable, and just. If the agitation of this 
subject was intended to reach the stability of our institutions, enough 
has occurred to show that it has signally failed, and that in this as in 
every other instance the apprehensions of the timid and the hopes of the 
wicked for the destruction of our Government are again destined to be 
disappointed. 

special message, SEPTEMBER 4, 1837. 

The act of the 23d June, 1836, regulating the deposits of the public 
money and directing the employment of State, District, and Territorial 
banks for that purpose, made it the duty of the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury to discontinue the use of such of them as should at any time re- 
fuse to redeem their notes in specie, and to substitute other banks, 
provided a sufficient number could be obtained to receive the public 
deposits upon the terms and conditions therein prescribed. The gen- 
eral and almost simultaneous suspension of specie payments by the 
banks in May last rendered the performance of this duty imperative in 
respect to those which had been selected under the act, and made it 
at the same time impracticable to employ the requisite number of 
others upon the prescribed conditions. The specific regulations es- 
tablished by Congress for the deposit and safe-keeping of the public 
moneys having thus unexpectedly become inoperative, I felt it to be 
my duty to afiford ycu an earlv opportunity for the exercise of your 
supervisory powers ever the subject. 



Martin Van Buren. 219 

I was also led to apprehend that the suspension of specie payments, 
increasing the embarrassments before existing in the pecuniary affairs 
of the country, would so far diminish the public revenue that the ac- 
cruing receipts into the Treasury would not, with the reserved five 
millions, be sufficient to defray the unavoidable expenses of the Gov- 
ernment until the usual period for the meeting of Congress, whilst 
the authority to call upon the States for a portion of the sums de- 
posited with them was too restricted to enable the Department to 
realize a sufficient amount from that source. These apprehensions 
have been justified by subsequent results, which render it certain that 
this deficiency will occur if additional means be not provided by Con- 
gress. 

The difficulties experienced by the mercantile interest in meeting 
their engagements induced them to apply to me previously to the 
actual suspension of specie payments for indulgence upon their bonds 
for duties, and all the relief authorized by law was promptly and cheer- 
fully granted. The dependence of the Treasury upon the avails of 
these bonds to enable it to make the deposits with the States required 
by law led me in the outset to limit this indulgence to the ist of Sep- 
tember, but it has since been extended to the ist of October, that 
the matter might be submitted to further direction. 

Banking has become a political topic of the highest interest, and 
trade has suffered in the conflict of parties. A speedy termination of 
this state of things, however desirable, is scarcely to be expected. 
We have seen for nearly half a century that those who advocate a 
national bank, by whatever motive they may be influenced, constitute 
a portion of our community too numerous to allow us to hope for 
an early abandonment of their favorite plan. On the other hand, 
they must indeed form an erroneous estimate of the intelligence and 
temper of the American people who suppose that they have con- 
tinued on slight or insufficient grounds their persevering opposition to 
such an institution, or that they can be induced by pecuniary pressure 
or by any other combination of circumstances to surrender principles 
they have so long and so inflexibly maintained. 

The collection, safe-keeping, transfer, and disbursement of the pub- 
lic money can, it is believed, be well managed by officers of the Gov- 
ernment. Its collection, and to a great extent its disbursement also, 
have indeed been hitherto conducted solely by them, ndther national 
nor State banks, when employed, being required to do more than keep 
it safely while in their custody, and transfer and pay it in such portions, 
and at such times as the Treasurv shall direct. 



220 History of the United States. 

Surely banks arc not more able than the Government to secure the 
money in their possession against accident, violence, or fraud. The 
assertion that they are so must assume that a vault in a bank is stronger 
than a vault in the Treasury, and that directors, cashiers, and clerks 
not selected by the Government nor under its control are more worthy 
of confidence than officers selected from the people and responsible 
to the Government — officers bound by official oaths and bonds for 
a faithful performance of their duties, and constantly subject to the 
supervision of Congress. 

With these views I leave to Congress the measures necessary to 
regulate in the present emergency the safe-keeping and transfer of 
the public moneys. 

The character of the funds to be received and disbursed in the 
transactions of the Government likewise demands most careful con- 
sideration. 

There can be no doubt that those who framed and adopted the 
Constitution, having in immediate view the depreciated paper of the 
Confederacy — of which $500 in paper were at times only equal to $1 
in coin — intended to prevent the recurrence of similar evils, so far 
at least as related to the transactions of the new Government. They 
gave to Congress express powers to coin money and to regulate the 
value thereof and of foreign coin; they refused to give it power to 
establish corporations — the agents then as now chiefly employed to 
create a paper currency; they prohibited the States from making any- 
thing but gold and silver a legal tender in payment of debts; and the 
First Congress directed by positive law that the revenue should be 
received in nothing but gold and silver. 



Whereas information having been received (January 5, 18.-^8) of a 
dangerous excitement on the northern frontier of the United States in 
consequence of the civil war begun in Canada, and instructions having 
been given to the United States officers on that frontier and appli- 
cations having been made to the governors of the adjoining States 
to prevent any unlawful interference on the part of our citizens in the 
contest unfortunately commenced in the British Provinces, additional 
mformation has just been received that, notwithstanding the proclama- 
tions of the governors of the States of New York and Vermont ex- 
horting their citizens to refrain from any unlawful acts within the 



Martin Van Buren. 221 

territory of the United States, and notwithstanding the presence of 
the civil officers of the United States, who by my directions have 
visited the scenes of commotion with a view of impressing the citizens 
with a proper sense of their duty, the excitement, instead of being 
appeased, is every day increasing in degree; that arms and munitions 
of war and other suppHes have been procured by the insurgents in the 
United States; that a mihtary force, consisting in part, at least, of 
citizens of the United States, had been actually organized, had con- 
gregated at Navy Island, and were still in arms under the command 
of a citizen of the United States, and that they were constantly receiv- 
ing accessions and aid: 

Now, therefore, to the end that the authority of the laws may be 
maintained and the faith of treaties observed, I, Martin Van Buren, do 
most earnestly exhort all citizens of the United States who have thus 
violated their duties to return peaceably to their respective homes; and 
I hereby warn them that any persons who shall compromit the neutral- 
ity of this Government by interfering in an unlawful manner with the 
affairs of the neighboring British Provinces will render themselves 
liable to arrest and punishment under the laws of the United States, 
which will be rigidly enforced; and, also, that they will receive no aid 
or countenance from their Government, into whatever difficulties they 
may be thrown by the violation of the laws of their country and the 
territory of a neighboring and friendly nation. 

second annual message, DECEMBER 3, 1838. 

Tt will appear from the correspondence herewith submitted that the 
Government of Russia declines a renewal of the fourth article of the 
convention of April, 1824, between the United States and His Im- 
perial Majesty, by the third article of which it is agreed that " here- 
after there shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States 
or under the authority of the said States any establishment upon the 
northwest coast of America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to 
the north of 54° 40' of north latitude, and that in the same manner 
there shall be none formed by Russian subjects or under the authority 
of Russia south of the same parallel ; " and by the fourth article, 
" that during a term of ten years, counting from the signature of the 
present convention, the ships of both powers, or which belong to their 
citizens or subjects, respectively, may reciprocally frequent, without 
anv hindrance whatever, the interior seas, gulfs, harbors, and creeks 
upon the coast mentioned in the preceding article, for the purpose of 



222 History of the United States. 

fishing- and trading with the natives of the country." The reasons 
assigned for decHning to renew the provisions of this article were, 
briefly, that the only use made by our citizens of the privileges it se- 
cured to them had been to supply the Indians with spirituous liquors, 
ammunition, and firearms; that this trafific had been excluded from 
the Russian trade; and as the supplies furnished from the United 
States were injurious to the Russian establishments on the northwest 
coast and calculated to produce complaints between the two Govern- 
ments, His Imperial Majesty thinks it for the interest of both countries 
not to accede to the proposition made by the American Government 
for the renewal of the article last referred to. 

The correspondence communicated will show the grounds upon 
which we contend that the citizens of the United States have, inde- 
pendent of the provisions of the convention of 1824, a right to trade 
with the natives upon the coast in question at unoccupied places, liable, 
however, it is admitted, to be at any time extinguished by the crea- 
tion of Russian establishments at such points. This right is denied 
by the Russian Government, which asserts that by the operation of the 
treaty of 1824 each party agreed to waive the general right to land on 
the vacant coasts on the respective sides of the degree of latitude re- 
ferred to, and accepted in lieu thereof the mutual privileges mentioned 
in the fourth article. The capital and tonnage employed by our 
citizens in their trade with the northwest coast of America will, per- 
haps, on adverting to the official statements of the commerce and 
navigation of the United States for the last few years, be deemed too 
inconsiderable in amount to attract much attention; yet the subject 
may in other respects deserve the careful consideration of Congress. 



FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 5, 184O. 

The excitement which grew out of the territorial controversy be« 
tween the United States and Great Britain having in a great measure 
subsided, it is hoped that a favorable period is approaching for its final 
settlement. Both Governments must now be convinced of the dan- 
gers with which the question is fraught, and it must be their desire, as 
it is their interest, that this perpetual cause of irritation should be 
removed as speedily as practicable. In my last annual message you 
were informed that the proposition for a commission of exploration 
and survey promised by Great Britain had been received, and that a 



ty^^/ yy^c 



■ /77ryua-<^, liy' /%^^ -^^z < / ^^ 



■"•/k/ ^■■■ 



' r^O' /ir/z-.j-ra-f^- ^f^a'r-^ ^ .-■■■■■■ ; f^<J 

y— ^ ' ■ . ■' - . / '■,- 



, •■ ■-.' V. V /v ./.';, ny //,.■.-.■;' ." ■ ' ■''c /,-■''': -If c ^/-^ f/^/ ^^ ^-<^' 
■ ' 'Tie- J/^i-tC'^i^^ y^-^ /^/ 

^(a- C y'^l2. /'^' ' ^^ ^ /<?-' . f. y t^/ , • ,- '/: C- ^y£/'/^^/ C^/^-C /i^C^ ^^ii.fl'fiy 



'/trj,'/ I 



PRESIDENT VAN BUREN'S PROCLAMATION REVOKING TON 
NAGE DUTIES ON VESSELS OF GREECE. 



Martin Van Buren. - 225 

counter project, including also a provision for the certain and final 
adjustment of the limits in dispute, was then before the British Gov- 
ernment for its consideration. The answer of that Government, ac- 
companied by additional propositions of its own, was received through 
its minister here since your separation. These were promptly con- 
sidered, such as were deemed correct in principle and consistent with 
a due regard to the just rights of the United States and of the State 
of Maine concurred in, and the reasons for dissenting from the residue, 
with an additional suggestion on our part, communicated by the Secre- 
tary of State to Mr. Fox. That minister, not feeling himself suffi- 
ciently instructed upon some of the points raised in the discussion, 
felt it to be his duty to refer the matter to his own Government for 
its further decision. Having now been for some time under its 
advisement, a speedy answer may be confidently expected. From the 
character of the pomts still in difiference and the undoubted disposi- 
tion of both parties 10 bring the matter to an early conclusion, I look 
with entire confidence to a prompt and satisfactory termination of 
the negotiation. Three commissioners were appointed shortly after 
the adjournment of Congress under the act of th.e last session provid- 
ing for the exploration and survey of the line which separates the 
States of Maine and New Hampshire from the British Provinces. 
They have been actively employed until their progress was interrupted 
by the inclemency of the season, and will resume their labors as soon 
as practicable in the ensuing year. 

It is understood that their respective examinations will throw 
new light upon the subject in controversy and serve to remove any 
erroneous impressions w'hich may have beei? made elsewhere preju- 
dicial to the rights of the United States. It was, among other reasons, 
with a view of preventing the embarrassments which in our peculiar 
system of government impede and complicate negotiations involving 
the territorial rights of a State that I thought it my duty, to propose 
to the British Government, through its minister at Washington, that 
early steps should be taken to adjust the points of difiference on the 
line of boundary from the entrance of Lake Superior to tlie most 
northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods by -the arbitration of a 
friendly power in conformity with the seventh article of the treaty of 
Ghent. 

The commissioners appointed in pursuance of the convention be- 
tween the L"^nited States and Texas for marking the boundarv between 
them have, according to the last report received from our commis- 



226 History of the United States. 

sioner, surveyed and established the whole extent of the boundary north 
along the western bank of the Sabine River from its entrance into 
the Gulf of Mexico to the thirty-second degree of north latitude. The 
commission adjourned on the i6th of June last, to reassemble on the 
I St of November for the purpose of establishing accurately the inter- 
section of the thirty-second degree of latitude with the western bank 
of the Sabine and the meridian line thence to Red River. It is Dre- 
surned that the work will be concluded in the present season. 

The present sound condition of their finances and the success with 
which embarrassments in regard to them, at times apparently insur- 
mountable, have been overcome are matters upon which the people 
and Government of the United States may well congratulate them-' 
selves. An overflowing Treasury, however it may be regarded as 
an evidence of public prosperity, is seldom conducive to the permanent 
welfare of any people, and experience has demonstrated its incompati- 
bility with the salutary action of political institutions like those of 
the United States. Our safest reliance for financial efficiency and in- 
dependence has, on the contrary, been found to consist in ample re- 
sources unencumbered with debt, and in this respect the Federal 
Government occupies a sinp^ularlv fortunate and trulv enviable posi- 
tion. 

When i entered upon the discharge of my official duties in March, 
1837, the act for the distribution of the surplus revenue was in a course 
of rapid execution. Nearly $28,000,000 of the public moneys were, in 
pursuance of its provisions, deposited with the States in the months of 
January, April, and July of that year. In May there occurred a gen- 
eral suspension of specie payments by the banks, including, with very 
few exceptions, those in which the public moneys were deposited and 
upon whose fidelity the Government had unfortunately made itself 
dependent for the revenues which had been collected from the people 
and were indispensable to the public service. 

It afifords me, however, great pleasure to be able to say that from 
the commencement of this period to the present day every demand 
upon the Government, at home or abroad, has been promptly met. 
This has been done not only without creating a permanent debt or a 
resort to additional taxation in any form, but in the midst of a steadily 
progressive reduction of existing burdens upon the people, leaving 
still a considerable balance of available funds which will remain in the 
Treasury at the end of the year. The small amount of Treasury notes, 
not exceeding $4,500,000, still outstanding, and less by twenty-three 



Martin Van Buren. 227 

millions than the United States have m deposit with the States, is 
composed of such only as are not yet due or have not been presented 
for payment. They may be redeemed out of the accruing revenue if 
the expenditures do not exceed the amount within which they may, 
it is thought, be kept without prejudice to the public interest, and 
the revenue shall prove to be as large as may justly be anticipated. 

The policy of the Federal Government in extinguishing as rapidly 
as possible the national debt, and subsequently in resisting every 
temptation to create a new one, deserves to be regarded in the same 
favorable light. Among the many objections to a national debt, the 
certain tendency of public securities to concentrate ultimately in the 
cofifers of foreign stockholders is one which is every day gathering 
strength. Already have the resources of many of the States and 
the future industry of their citizens been indefinitely mortgaged to the 
subjects of European Governments to the amount of twelve millions 
annually to pay the constantly accruing interest on borrowed money — 
a sum exceeding half the ordinary revenues of the whole United 
States. The pretext which this relation affords to foreigners to 
scrutinize the management of our domestic afifairs, if not actually to 
intermeddle with them, presents a subject for earnest attention, not to 
say of serious alarm. Fortunately, the Federal Government, with 
the exception of an obligation entered into in behalf of the District 
of Columbia, which must soon be discharged, is wholly exempt from 
any such embarrassment. It is also, as is believed, the only Govern- 
ment which, having fully and faithfully paid all its creditors, has also 
relieved itself entirely from debt. To maintain a distinction so desir- 
able and so honorable to our national character should be an object of 
earnest solicitude. Never should a free people, if it be possible to 
avoid it, expose themselves to the necessity of having to treat of the 
peace, the honor, or the safety of the Republic with the governments 
of foreign creditors, who, however well disposed they may be to culti- 
vate w^ith us in general friendly relations, are nevertheless by the law 
of their own condition made hostile to the success and permanency of 
political institutions like ours. 

To change a system operating upon so large a surface and appli- 
cable to such numerous and diversified interests and objects was more 
than the Avork of a day. The attention of every department of the 
Government was immediately and in good faith directed to that end, 
and has been so continued to the present moment. The estimates and 
appropriations for the year 1838, the first over which I had any con- 



228 History of the United States. 

trol, were somewhat diminished. The expenditures of 1839 were re- 
duced $6,000,000. Those of 1840, exclusive of disbursements for 
pubHc debt and trust claims, will probably not exceed twenty-two and 
a half millions, being- between two and three millions less than those 
of the preceeding year and nine or ten millions less than those of 1837. 
Nor has it been found necessary in order to produce this result to 
resort to the power conferred by Congress of postponing certain 
classes of the public works, except by deferring expenditures for a 
short period upon a limited portion of them, and which postponement 
terminated some time since — at the moment the Treasury Department 
1)V further receipts from the indebted ban! ;; became fully assured of 
its ability to meet them without prejudice to the public service in other 
respects. Causes are in operation which will, it is believed, justify a 
still further reduction without injury to any important national in- 
terest. The expenses of sustaining the troops employed in Florida 
have been gradually and greatly reduced through the persevering 
efforts of the War Department, and a reasonable hope may be enter- 
tained that the necessity for military operations in that quarter will 
soon cease. The removal of the Indians from within our settled bor- 
ders is nearly completed. The pension list, one of the heaviest charges 
upon the Treasury, is rapidly diminishing by death. The most 
costly of our public buildings are either finished or nearly so, and we 
may, I think, safely promise ourselves a continued exemption from 
border dif^culties. 

The availal^le balance in the Treasury on the ist of January next is 
estimated at $1,500,000. This sum, with the expected receipts from 
all sources during lhe next year, will, it is believed, be sufficient to 
enable the Government to meet every engagement and have a suitable 
balance in the Treasury at the end of the year, if the remedial meas- 
ures connected with the customs and the public lands heretofore 
recommended are adopted and the new appropriations by Congress 
shall not carry the expenditures beyond the official estimates. 

The new system established by Congress for the safe-keeping of the 
public money, prescribing tlic kind of currency to be received for the 
public rcA'enue and providing additional guards and securities against 
losses, has now been several months in operation. Although it might 
be premature upon an experience of sucli limited duration to form a 
definite opinion in regard to the extent of its influences in correcting 
many evils under which the Federal Government and the country have 
hitherto suflfered, especially those that have grown out of banking ex- 



Martin Van Buren. 229 

pansions, a depreciated currency, and official defalcations, yet it is but 
right to say that nothing has occurred in the practical operation of the 
system to weaken in the slightest degree, but much to strengthen, the 
confident anticipations of its friends. 

The policy of the United States in regard to the Indians, and of 
the wisdom and expediency of which I am fully satisfied, has been con- 
tinued in active operation throughout the whole period of my Admin- 
istration. Since the spring of 1837 more than 40,000 Indians have 
been removed to their new homes west of the Mississippi, and I am 
happy to add that all accounts concur in representing the result of this 
measure as eminently beneficial to that people. 

The emigration of the Seminoles alone has been attended with seri- 
ous difficulty and occasioned bloodshed, hostilities having been com- 
menced by the Indians in Florida under the apprehension that they 
would be compelled by force to comply with their treaty stipulations. 

The Navv has been usefully and honorably employed in the pro- 
tection of our commerce and citizens in the Mediterranean, the Pacific, 
on the coast of Brazil, and in the Gulf of Mexico. A small squadron, 
consisting of the frigate " Constellation " and the sloop of war " Bos- 
ton," under Commodore Kearney, is now on its way to the China and 
Indian seas for the purpose of attending to our interests in that quar- 
ter, and Commander Aulick, in the sloop of war " Yorktown," has 
been instructed to visit the Sandwich and Society islands, the coasts 
of New Zealand and Japan, together with other ports and islands 
frequented by our whale ships, for the purpose of giving them counte- 
nance and protection should they be required. Other smaller vessels 
have been and still are employed in prosecuting the surveys of the 
coast of the United States directed by various acts of Congress. 

The exploring expedition at the latest date was preparing to leave 
the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, in further prosecution of objects 
which have thus far been successfully accomplished. The discovery 
of a new continent, which was first seen in latitude 66° 2' south, lon- 
gitude 154° 27' east, and afterward in latitude 66° 31' south, longitude 
153° 40' east, by Lieutenants Wilkes and Hudson, for an extent of 
1,800 miles, but on which they were prevented from landing by vast 
bodies of ice which encompassed it, is one of the honorable results of 
the enterprise. Lieutenant Wilkes bears testimony to the zeal and 
good conduct of his officers and men. and it is but justice to that offi- 
cer to state that he appears to have performed the duties assigned him 
with an ardor, ability, and perseverance which give every assurance of 
an honorable issue to the undertaking. 



230 History of the United States. 



LIFE OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 

MARTIN VAN BUREN was born December 5, 1782, at Kin- 
derhook, New York. He was the oldest son of Abraham 
Van Buren, a farmer, and Mrs. Mary Van Alen, a widow 
whose maiden name was Mary Hoes. He learned the rudiments of 
Eng-lish and Latin in the schools of Kinderhook, and when 14 years 
old entered the office of Francis Sylvester and commenced the study 
of law, where he remained seven years. He exhibited a fondness for 
extemporaneous debate and was early remarked for his intelligent 
observation of public events and interest in politics. In 1802 he went 
to New York city and continued the study of law under William P. 
Van Ness, a friend of Aaron Burr. He was admitted to the bar in 
1803, and returning to Kinderhook entered into practice with his half- 
brother, James I. Van Alen. He married Hannah Hoes, a distant 
relative, in February, 1807, and removed to Hudson, New York. 
During the same year he was admitted to practice in the Supreme 
Court. In 1808 he became Surrogate of Columbia county, defeating 
his half-brother and partner. In 18 12 he was elected to the Senate 
of New York from the middle district as a Clinton Republican, and 
took his seat that November. While Senator he strongly opposed the 
charter of " The Bank of America," which was then striving to es- 
tablish itself in New York, and to take the place of the " United 
States Bank." Though he was an adherent of Madison's Administra- 
tion and of the policy of declaring war against Great Britain, he went 
with the Republican members of the New York Legislature in 181 2 
and supported De Witt Clinton for the Presidency. The following 
year he broke with the Clinton faction, and resumed cordial relations 
with Madison's Administration. In 181 5 he was appointed Attorney- 
General of New York State, and the next year was re-elected to the 
State Senate. He then removed to Albany and formed a law partner- 
ship with Benjamin F. Butler. That same year he was made a Regent 
of the University of New York. He was elected to the L^nited States 
Senate and took his seat December 3, 1821. He was at once made a 
member of its committees on the Judiciary and Finance, and was 
chairman of the former for many years. He was re-elected to the 
Senate in 1827, but resigned to become Governor of New^ York in 
1828. He staunchly supported Andrew Jackson in the Presidential 
election of 1828, and became Secretary of State in 1829. While in 
this office he successfully settled the long-standing feud between the 



Martin Van Buren. 231 

United States and England in regard to the West Indian trade. He 
resigned from this office in June, 1831, and was sent to England as 
minister. In 1832 ihe Senate refused to confirm his nomination by 
the casting vote of John C. Calhoun, the Vice-President. In 1832 
he was elected Vice-President of the United States, and President in 
1836, defeating William H. Harrison and Daniel Webster. He was 
nominated by the Democratic party for re-election in 1840 but was de- 
feated by William H. Harrison. He then retired to his country seat, 
Lindenwold. He ran against James K. Polk for President in 1844, but 
was defeated. He died at Kinderhook, July 24, 1862, and was buried 
there. 



232 



History of the United States. 




■V/ILLIAM HENRY Hi^RRISdN'S HOiVlE. AT NORTH BENO, INDIANA. 



CHAPTER IX 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, THE PEOPLE'S IDOL. 



By Perry Sanford Heath, First Assistant Postmaster-General. 



T 1 r ILLIAM HENRY HARRISON as President was a distinctive char- 
acter. In personality he probably never had, and it is doubtful if 
he ever will have, an imitator or an equal. The country looked upon him 
at the time not alone as a great pioneer and warrior, but as a great and good 
man, who came very close to the people. The people selected him for the 
highest office within their gift, not only on account of that which he had 
accomplished in blazing the way to civilization and taming the savages in 
the Central West, or because he had assisted in repelling British intrusion, 
but because they regarded him as the personification of honor and as pos- 
sessing the material for a great statesman. 

It has often been recorded in history and it is a common expression to-day 
that " William Henry Harrison was killed by office-seekers." A man who 
would place himself so near the people as to permit office-seekers to send 
him to an untimely grave must have had in a very marked degree the milk of 




NINTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



William Henry Harrison. 235 

human kindness, and a fountain of gratitude and personal affection, which 
should win admiration. 

It was the elevation of such a man to the Presidential chair, after a cam- 
paign so characteristic as to leave its imprint upon time, that made the ad- 
ministration of William Henry Harrison notable. It was this rather than his 
Presidential service or the opportunities which were offered him as the Chief 
Executive of the country. The mere inauguration of such a man doubtless 
facilitated the work, which greatly perplexed the country, of subjugating un- 
civilized tribes of Indians and of populating with white men that section of 
the United States which is now most productive of all that goes to sustain 
a great government. 

Probably no man has ever occupied the Executive Mansion whose name 
was so universally perpetuated by namesakes, with the possible exception of 
George Washington. The children who were named after William Henry 
Harrison, if they could be lined up to-day, would make an army almost 
sufificient to have conducted successfully the war against Spain, or to fill all 
of the Federal offices of the country to-day. 

I find that the State papers of President William Henry Harrison are con- 
fined to his inaugural address and a proclamation convening Congress to 
meet in extraordinary session on May 31, 1841. On the fourth of the fol- 
lowing April he died. In his inaugural address he manifests an intense de- 
sire to conscientiously fulfill the duties of his high office. He quotes in the 
opening paragraph the remarks of a Roman consul of several thousand years 
ago, that there was a striking contrast between the conduct of candidates for 
office before and after their selection, they seldom carrying out the pledges 
and promises they had given. He proceeds to declare his intention of ful- 
filling all the pledges he had made and concludes his address with this some- 
what pathetic sentence: 

" Fellow citizens, being fully vested with that high office to which the 
partiality of my countrymen has called me, I now take an affectionate leave 
of you." 

The above utterance seemed to be prophetic, in that it was his leave-taking, 
for he never again appeared in public. 

As a warrior among Indians, William Henry Harrison has been placed 
upon the scroll of fame with Daniel Boone and Kenton. As an army officer, 
a trained soldier and tactician upon the field history places him with Wash- 
ington, whose unlimited confidence he possessed. 

As a patriot, William Henry Harrison will always be remembered. No one 
who has achieved the high office he held will probably ever have a greater 
degree of confidence or affection of the people. It is lamentable that the 



236 History of the United States. 

expectations of the country were so rudely dashed by his untimely death, as 
much was expected of, and no doubt much would have been realized by his 
administration. He had high hopes, sustained by the confidence of the peo- 
ple, that there would be a swift development of the entire West. The pioneers 
had entire faith in his administration, and the commercial interests of the 
country anticipated from the results of his statesmanship, results as remarkable 
as the success of his military exploits. 

At the time of the Harrison-Van Buren campaign political cartoons were 
just coming into general use in this country. Gen. William Henry Harrison, 
who had some time before retired to private life, was then living upon his 
farm at North Bend, Ohio, between Cincinnati and the Indiana line. In one of 
these campaign hand bills are pictures of various scenes upon the farm in- 
cluding the Log Cabin and the famous Cider Press, while the General him- 
self is represented in his shirt sleeves, ploughing. He was called " The Cin- 
cinnatus of the West," and this epithet proved of advantage in the cam- 
paign. 

He was living in the famous cabin at North Bend, and devoting himself to 
agriculture with the same energy and enthusiasm which he had displayed in 
the affairs of War and of State. Here he remained until called upon by his 
friends to become a candidate for the presidency of the United States. He 
had married a daughter of John Cleves Symmes, the founder of Cincinnati, 
Ohio. He was in sympathy wholly with the Western pioneers, among whom 
he had lived so long. 

His term as president lasted but thirty days, and his death was felt as a 
severe blow by his party, which had formed high expectations of his capacity 
in executive matters. Notwithstanding his notable career as a general and 
statesman, William Henry Harrison is likely to be remembered as the highest 
type of the pioneers, who succeeded the frontiersmen Kenton and Boone. His 
service to the great empire, which has since been divided into the States of 
Ohio, Indiana. Illinois and Michigan, will cause him to be affectionately re- 
membered by thousands who barely know the names of other presidents. 



^^,/w-^ ^-;^l^fivy^^, 



William Henry Harrison. 237 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1841. 



By William Henry Harrison. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 184I. 

CALLED from a retirement which I had supposed was to con- 
tinue for the residue of my hfe to fill the chief executive office 
of this great and free nation, and in obedience to a custom 
coeval with our Government and what I beheve to be your expecta- 
tions I proceed to present to you a summary of the principles which 
will govern me in the discharge of the duties which I shall be called 
upon to perform. 

It was the remark of a Roman consul in an early period of that 
celebrated Republic that a most striking contrast was observable in the 
conduct of candidates for offices of power and trust before and after 
obtaining them, they seldom carrying out in the latter case the pledges 
and promises made in the former. However much the w'orld may 
have improved in many respects in the lapse of upward of two thou- 
sand years since the remark was made by the virtuous and indignant 
Roman, I fear that a strict examination of the annals of some of the 
modern elective governments would develop similar instances of vio- 
lated confidence. 

I proceed to state in as summary a manner as I can my opinion of 
the sources of the evils which have been so extensively complained of 
and the correctives which may be applied. Some of the former are 
unquestionably to be found in the defects of the Constitution; others, 
in my judgment, are attributable to a misconstruction of some of its 
provisions. Of the former is the eligibility of the same individual to 
a second term of the Presidency. The sagacious mind of Mr. Jef- 
ferson early saw and lamented this error, and attempts have been 
made, hitherto without success, to apply the amendatory powder of the 
States to its correction. As, however, one mode of correction is in the 
power of every President, and consequently in mine, it would be use- 
less, and perhaps invidious, to enumerate the evils of which, in the 



238 History of the United States. 

opinion of many of our fellow-citizens, this error of the sages who 
framed the Constitution may have been the source and the bitter fruits 
which we are still to gather from it if it continues to disfigure our 
system. It may be observed, however, as a general remark, that re- 
publics can commit no greater error than to adopt or continue any fea- 
ture in their systems of government which may be calculated to create 
or increase the love of power in the bosoms of those to whom neces- 
sity obliges them to commit the management of their affairs; and 
surely nothing is more likely to produce such a state of mind than 
the long continuance of an office of high trust. Until an amend- 
ment of the Constitution can be eft"ected public opinion may secure 
the desired object. I give my aid to it by renewing the pledge hereto- 
fore given that under no circumstances will I consent to serve a 
second term. 

But if there is danger to public liberty from the acknowledged defects 
of the Constitution in the want of limit to the continuance of the Ex- 
ecutive power in the same hands, there is, I apprehend, not much less 
from a misconstruction of that instrument as it regards the powers 
actually given. I can not conceive that by a fair construction any or 
either of its provisions would be found to constitute the President a 
part of the legislative power. It can not be claimed from the power 
to recommend, since, although enjoined as a duty upon him, it is a 
privilege which he holds in common with every other citizen; and 
although there may be something more of confidence in the propriety 
of the measures recommended in the one case than in the other, in the 
obligations of ultimate decision there can be no dift'erence. In the 
language of the Constitution, " all the legislative powers " which it 
grants " are vested in the Congress of the United States." It would 
be a solecism in language to say that any portion of these is not in- 
cluded in the whole. 

It is preposterous to suppose that a thought could for a moment 
have been entertained that the President, placed at the capital, in the 
center of the country, could better understand the wants and wishes of 
the people than their own immediate representatives, who spend a 
part of every year among them, living witli them, often laboring with 
ihem, and bound to them by the triple tie of interest, duty, and affec- 
tion. To assist or control Congress, then, in its ordinarv legislation 
could not, I conceive, have been the motive for conferring the veto 
power on the President. This argument accjuires additional force 
from the fact of its never having been thus used by the first six Presi- 



William Henry Harrison. 239 

dents — and two of them were members of the Convention, one pre- 
siding over its deUberations and the other bearing a larger share in 
consummating the labors of that august body than any other person. 
But if bills were never returned to Congress by either of the Presidents 
above referred to upon the ground of their being inexpedient or not 
as well adapted as they might be to the wants of the people, the veto 
was applied upon that of want of conformity to the Constitution or be- 
cause errors had been committed from a too hasty enactment. 

By making the President the sole distributer of all the patronage of 
the Government the framers of the Constitution do not appear to have 
anticipated at how short a period it would become a formidable instru- 
ment to control the free operations of the State governments. Of 
trifling importance at first, it had early in Mr. Jefiferson's Administra- 
tion become so powerful as to create great alarm in the mind of that 
patriot from the potent influence it might exert in controlling the free- 
dom of tb.e elective franchise. If such could have then been the 
effects of its influence, how much greater must be the danger at this 
time, quadrupled in amount as it certainly is and more completely un- 
der the control of the Executive will than their construction of their 
powers allowed or the forbearing characters of all the early Presidents 
permitted them to make. But it is not by the extent of its patronage 
alone that the executive department has become dangerous, but by the 
use which it appears may be made of the appointing power to bring 
imder its control the whole revenues of the country. The Constitu- 
tion has declared it to be the duty of the President to see that the laws 
are executed, and it makes him the Commander-in-Chief of the Armies 
and Navy of the United States. If the opinion of the most approved 
writers upon that species of mixed government which in modern Eu- 
rope is termed iiwnarchy in contradistinction to despotism is correct, 
there was wanting no other addition to the powers of our Chief Mag- 
istrate to stamp a m.onarchial character on our Government but the' 
control of the public finances; and to me it appears strange indeed that 
anyone should doubt that the entire control wliich the President pos- 
sesses over the ofificers who have the custody of the public monev, by 
the power of removal with or without cause, does, for all mischievous 
purposes at least, virtually sul)iect the treasure also to his disposal. I 
am not insensible to the great difificulty that exists in drawing a proper 
plan for the safe-keeping and disbursement of the public revenues, 
and I know the importance which has been attached by men of great 
abilities and patriotism to the divorce, as it is called, of the Treasury 



240 History of the United States. 

from the banking institutions. It is not the divorce which is com- 
plained of, but the unhallowed union of the Treasury with the execu- 
tive department, which has created such extensive alarm. To this 
danger to our republican institutions and that created by the influence 
given to the Executive through the instrumentality of the Federal 
officers I propose to apply all the remedies whicli may be at my com- 
mand. It was certainly a great error in the framers of the Constitu- 
tion not to have made the oiificer at the head of the Treasui-y Depart- 
ment entirely independent of the Executive. He should at least have 
been removable only upon the demand of the popular branch of the 
Legislature. 

The influence of the Executive in controlling the freedom of the 
elective franchise through the medium of the public officers can be 
effectually checked by renewing the prohibition published by Mr. 
Jefiferson forbidding their interference in elections further than giving 
their own votes and their own independence secured by an assurance of 
perfect inmiunity in exercising this sacred privilege of freedom under 
the dictates of their own unbiased judgments. Never with my con- 
sent shall an officer of the people, compensated for his services out of 
their pockets, become the pliant instrument of Executive will. 

There is no part of the means placed in the hands of the Executive 
which might be used with greater effect for unhallowed purposes than 
the control of the public press. The maxim which our ancestors de- 
rived from the mother country that " the freedom of the press is the 
great bulwark of civil and religious liberty " is one of the most 
precious legacies which they have left us. We have learned, too, from 
(uir own as well as the experience of other countries, that golden 
shackles, by whomsoever or by whatever pretense imposed, are as fatal 
to it as the iron bonds of despotism. The presses in the necessary em- 
ployment of the Government should never be used " to clear the guilty 
or to varnish crime." A decent and manly examination of the acts of 
the Government should be not only tolerated, but encouraged. 

The idea of making the currency exclusively metallic, however well 
intended, appears to me to be fraught with more fatal consequences 
than any other scheme having no relation to the personal rights of the 
citizens that has ever been devised. If any single scheme could pro- 
duce the effect of arresting at once that mutation of condition by which 
thousands of our most indigent fellow-citizens by their industry and 
enterprise arc raised to the possession of wealth, that is the one. If 
there is one measure better calculated than another to produce that 



William Henry Harrison. 241 

slate of things so much deprecated by all true republicans, by which 
the rich are daily adding to their hoards and the poor sinking deeper 
into penury, it is an exclusive metallic currency. Or if there is a pro- 
cess by which the character of the country for generosity and noble- 
ness of feeling may be destroyed by the great increase and necessary 
toleration of usury, it is an exclusive metallic currency. 

It is my intention to use every means in my power to preserve the 
friendly intercourse which now so happily subsists with every foreign 
nation, and that although, of course, not well informed as to the state 
of pending negotiations with any of them, I see in the personal char- 
acters of the sovereigns, as well as in the mutual interests of our own 
and of the governments with which our relations are most intimate, 
a pleasing guaranty that the harmony so important to the interests 
of their subjects as well as of our citizens will not be interrupted by 
the advancement of any claim or pretension upon their part to which 
our honor would not permit us to yield. Long the defender of my 
country's rights in the field, I trust that my fellow-citizens will not see 
in my earnest desire to preserve peace with foreign nations any indica- 
tion that their rights will ever be sacrificed or the honor of the nation 
tarnished by any admission on the part of their Chief Magistrate un- 
worthy of their former glory. In our intercourse with our aboriginal 
lunghbors the same liberality and justice which marked the course pre- 
scribed to me by two of my illustrious predecessors when acting under 
their direction in the discharge of the duties of superintendent and 
commissioner shall be strictly observed. 



An all-wise Providence having suddenly removed (April 4, 1841) 
from this life William Henry Harrison, late President of the United 
States, we have thought it our duty, in the recess of Congress and in 
the absence of the Vice-President from the seat of Government, to 
make this afflicting bereavement known to the country by this declara- 
tion under our hands. 

He died at the President's house, in this city, this 4th day of April. 
A. D. 1841, at thirty minutes before i o'clock in the morning. 

The people of the United States, overwhelmed, like ourselves, by an 
event so unexpected and so melancholy, will derive consolation from 
knoAving that his death was calm and resigned, as his life has been 
patriotic, useful, and distinguished, and that the last utterance of his 



242 History of the United States. 

iips expressed a fervent desire for the perpetuity of the Constitution 
and the preservation of its true principles. In death, as in Ufe, the 
happiness of his country was uppermost in his thoughts. 

DANIEL WEBSTER, 

Secretary of State. 
THOAIAS EWING, 

Secretary of the Treasury. 
JOHN BELL, 

Secretary of JVar. 
J. J. CRITTENDEN, 

Attorney-General. 
FRANCIS GRANGER, 

Postmaster-General. 



LIFE OF WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON was born at Berkley, Va., 
February 9, 1773. He was the youngest son of Benjamin 
Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. He was educated at Hampden Sidney College, Virginia, and 
entered upon the study of medicine, but Indian hostilities on the 
western frontier led him to abandon it and enter the Army, as ensign 
in the First Infantry, August 16, 1791. He joined his regiment at 
Fort Washington, Ohio, was made lieutenant, June 2, 1792. He then 
became aid-de-camp to General Wayne and distinguished himself for 
gallantry in the victory on the Miami, August 20, 1794. He was 
made captain May 15, 1797, and given the command of Fort W^ashing- 
ton. W^hile stationed there he married Anna Symmes, daughter of 
John Cleves Symmes. Peace having been made with the Indians he 
resigned his commission June i. 1798, upon which President John 
Adams appointed him Secretary of the Northwest Territory, wdiicli 
office he resigned October, 1799 to become Territorial Delegate in 
Congress. During his term a portion of the Northwest Territory 
was formed into the Territory of Indiana, which included the present 
States of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, and he w^as ap- 
pointed its Governor and Superintendent of Indian Afifairs, and was 
reappointed by Jefferson and Madison both. In 1805 ^^ organized 
the legislature at Yincennes, and on September 30, 1809, he con- 
cluded a treaty with several Indian tribes by which they sold to the 




CARTOON RIDICULING THE MILLERITES MILLENNIUM PROPHECY OF 1843. 







■JU/e 'Iff. tif the aStmitl ,' 



m 



1 






^-c^.-:..- ;^^fAi, 



CARTOON AGAINST THE NATIONAL BANK SYSTEM. WHICH ANDREW JACKSON 

OVERTHREW. 




FINANCIAL CRISIS OF VAN BUREN S ADMINISTRATION, FOLLOWING RETIRING 
OF INFLATED PAPER CURRENCY AND RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS. 




RIDICULE OF JENNY LIND's POPULARITY IN 185O. 



William Henry Harrison, 245 

United States about 3,000,000 acres of land on the Wabash and White 
rivers. The Indians began frequent depredations in the spring of 
1811 and Governor Harrison marched from Mncennes on September 
26th, with a force of 900, and completed Fort Harrison near the site of 
Terre Haute, Ind. He left a garrison there and pressed on toward 
Tippecanoe, October 28th. When near the town on the morning of 
November 7th a fierce attack was made on his forces by the savages 
whom he drove from the field. On August 22, 1812, he was made 
a brigadier-general of the Regular Army, and latter was appointed to 
the chief command of the Northwestern Army with instructions to 
act according to his discretion and judgment — a latitude which had 
been given no commander since Washington. He was commissioned 
major-general March 2, 181 3, and was in command of Fort Meigs 
when General Proctor with a force of British troops and Indians be- 
sieged it unsuccessfully from April 28 to May 9, 18 13. Transfer- 
ring his army to Canada he fought the battle of the Thames, October 
5th, defeated General Proctor's army of 800 regulars and 1,200 In- 
dians and killed the celebrated Tecumseh, who led the latter. This 
battle together with Perry's naval victor}' in Lake Erie put an end 
to the war in upper Canada. For his victory of the Thames Con- 
gress voted him a gold medal March 30, 1818. In 1824 he was sent 
to the United States Senate from Ohio. In 1828 he resigned having 
been appointed by President John Quincy Adams, Minister to the 
United States of Colombia. He was elected to the Presidency by the 
Whigs, November 10, 1840; was inaugurated March 4, 1841, and 
died April 4, 1841. He was buried in the Congressional Cemetery at 
Washington, but in June, 1841, his remains were removed to North 
Bend and placed in a tomb overlooking the Ohio River. 



246 



History of the United States. 




■•'t 






-m^ 




%• 


" ^ 7 


if£^'^ 


«»«"tJv/J/ , 



HOME OF JOHN TYLER, AT SHERWOOD FOREST, GREENWAY, VIRQINIA. 



CHAPTER X. 



JOHN TYLER'S WISE POLICY. 



By Ex-Senator J. B. Henderson, of Missouri. 



"\ TO President of the Republic has created greater extremes of opinion re- 
specting his merits than John Tyler; and perhaps another generation 
must pass before his administration can be justly or impartially weighed. He 
came of an old English family, which settled in Virginia, in the early days of 
that colony, and he was the fifth John Tyler in the line of descent in his sec- 
tion of the State. Some have traced the family origin to Watt Tyler, the 
celebrated English agitator, who became famous by his rebellion near the 
close of the 14th Century. 

John Tyler's political success seems to have been unbounded, and one of his 
friends records, in a brief sentence the reasons for it: 



John Tyler. 247 

" By a rare union of prudence, good sense, and good temper, set off by 
natural gifts of oratory and a persuasive address, he won the hearts of the 
people, and commanded the favors of fortune, and success waited on him at 
every step of his public career." 

John Tyler seems to have foreseen even in his early manhood the inevitable 
clash to come between the slaveholding and nonslaveholding States. As a pro- 
slavery man he accepted and followed the lead of John C. Calhoun in the 
nullification branch of the Democratic party; and he soon became a power to 
be reckoned with in the politics of the country. His prominence was such that 
he was put on the ticket with General W. H. Harrison in 1840, when the 
" Tippecanoe and Tyler " campaign developed into one of the most exciting 
episodes of American politics. This campaign produced a singular combina- 
tion, the Whigs, the " National Republicans " and the " Democratic Repub- 
licans," combining on a ticket discordant in its candidates, but claimed with 
frantic enthusiasm, to represent the cherished views of both the North and the 
South. 

Tyler was expected to uphold and conserve the tenets of the State-rights 
party, and to see that the Constitution was strictly construed in all matters 
aflfecting the institution of slavery. 

In one month after the inauguration, General Harrison died, and Tyler be- 
came President. Instead of reorganizing the Cabinet on lines of his own, he 
adopted the policy of retaining the existing Cabinet, although many, and 
possibly all, of them felt more or less distrust of Mr. Tyler's fidelity to the 
platform on which the party had come into power. The truth is, that the 
combination ticket of Harrison and Tyler was the usual party trick, intended 
to unite discordant elements, and having the sole object of obtaining votes 
enough to insure success. Slavery agitation had already then become exciting 
if not violent. Harrison was recognized as an anti-slavery man, while Tyler 
was notoriously allied in sentiment with the extreme section of the pro- 
slavery party of the South. Mr. Harrison's fidelity to the platform of his 
party demanding the creation of a national bank and the establishment of a 
protective tariff, was implicitly accepted by all his adherents, while the previous 
public career of Tyler had openly identified him with the enemies of a national 
bank; and his former political associations gave but little assurance on the 
subject of the tariff. As a Senator from Virginia in 1831-1832 he had opposed 
by speech and by vote a tariff for direct or express protection, but accepted 
the then Southern doctrine of a tariff for revenue with incidental protection. 
His vote against the protective tariff of 1828 had never been disavowed, and 
was sufficient to render his position equivocal at the least. At the same session 



248 History of the United States. 

he had opposed the bill to continue the bank of the United States beyond the 
termination of its then existing charter. There is but little doubt that Tyler's 
seeming atliliation with the Whig party had its only origin in his avowed 
sympathy with nullification in 1832, which, of course, placed him in open 
antagonism with President Jackson and his followers. The Whigs indeed were 
generally favorable to General Jackson's proclamation against the nullifiers; 
but Jackson's course on that subject had produced considerable dissatisfaction 
in the Democratic party, threatening open revolt in Maryland, Georgia, South 
Carolina, Tennessee, and other Southern States. At the head of this revolt 
Mr. Tyler occupied prominence, and, as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency 
in 1836, he had received the support of the States named. His nomination, 
therefore, in 1840, on the Whig ticket, was to reap the fruits, of disatYection in 
the Democratic party rather than to make sure of fealty to Whig principles or 
to reward Mr. Tyler for any services rendered to that party. 

When Tyler vetoed the National Bank Bill in 1841, his party abandoned him 
with curses and maledictions accompanied with unpardonable vehemence and 
violence. 

In all other respects his administration proved to be eminently successful. 
A bankruptcy law, admittedly necessary to relieve the failures following the 
panic of 1837, was passed, and a tariff law looking to both revenue and pro- 
tection was approved in 1842. Just before the expiration of his term in 1845, 
Texas was admitted into the Union with the mutual consent of the parties in 
interest, and on the true principles of peaceable and healthful expansion, under 
which the inhabitants of the new territory became at once clothed with every 
constitutional right, and the State itself took its place as an equal member of 
the federal imion. The Northeastern boundary question which had long 
threatened the public peace was honorably and satisfactorily settled during his 
administration. 

President Tyler's critics of that day aspersed his name with immoderate 
abuse and seem to have delighted in calumniating his character, but in the 
clearer light of subsequent history, it is admitted that much of this detraction 
may be fairly attributed to the smarting anguish of party disappointments, 
stimulated and aggravated by the fierce and unreasonable passions which 
disgraced the politics of that period. 

It is now perfectly clear that the independent treasury system, then recently 
adopted under the administration of Mr. Van Buren, is far better for both 
government and people than any benefits to be derived from the fiscal agencies 
of a national bank. Time, indeed, sets all things even. And Tyler's friends 
may now, with some justification, claim that his treason to party proved to be 
a blessing to his country. 



John Tyler. 



249 



When the great war of the Rebellion began in 1861, he came as a delegate 
from Virginia to a " Peace Convention " at Washington, with the vain hope of 
averting the horrors which he had already seen in the prophetic visions of his 
youth, but it was too late. 

He returned home from his fruitless mission to join the fortunes of his Stato 
just then being hurried on with frantic zeal into a war more fruitless still. 

John Tyler was not without faults, but he was better than many who, with 
shameless contumely, have aspersed his name. 

He disregarded the behests of his party; and no man can survive this act of 
disobedience, however justified he may be in the eyes of God or of sensible 
men. The more ignorant or corrupt his party, the more swift and certain is 
his ruin. 



C»^^-7^ 




250 History of the United States. 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1841-1845. 



By John Tyler. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, APRIL 9, 184I. 

BEFORE my arrival at the seat of Government the painful com- 
munication was made by the officers presiding over the sev- 
eral Departments of the deeply regretted death of William 
Henry Harrison, late President of the United States. Upon him you 
had conferred your suffrages for the first office in your gift, and had 
selected him as your chosen instrument to correct and reform all such 
errors and abuses as had manifested themselves from time to time in 
the practical operation of the Government. While standing at the 
threshold of this great work he has by the dispensation of an all-wise 
Providence been removed from amongst us, and by the provisions of 
the Constitution the efforts to be directed to the accomplishing of this 
vitally important task have devolved upon myself. This same oc- 
currence has subjected the wisdom and sufficiency of our institutions 
to a new test. For the first time in our history the person elected to 
the Vice-Presidency of the United States, by the happening of a 
contingency provided for in the Constitution, has had devolved upon 
him the Presidential office. 

A brief exposition of the principles which will govern me in the 
general course of my administration of public affairs would seem to be 
due as well to myself as to you. 

In regard to foreign nations, the groundwork of my policy will be 
justice on our part to all, submitting to injustice from none. Wliile 
I shall sedulously cultivate the relations of peace and amity with one 
and all, it will be my most imperative duty to see that the honor of 
the country shall sustain no blemish. 

In all public expenditures the most rigid economy should be re- 
sorted to, and, as one of its results, a public debt in time of peace 
be sedulously avoided. A wise and patriotic constituency will never 
object to the imposition of necessary burdens for useful ends, and 
true wisdom dictates the resort to such means in order to supply de- 



John Tyler. 251 

ficiencies in the revenue, rather than to those doubtful expedients 
which, ultimating in a pubHc debt, serve to embarrass the resources 
of the country and to lessen its ability to meet any great emergency 
which may arise. All sinecures should be abolished. 



I have the satisfaction to communicate (August 11, 1842) the re- 
sults of the negotiations recently had in this city with the British 
minister, special and extraordinary. 

These results comprise — 

First. A treaty to settle and define the boundaries between the 
territories of the United States and the possessions of Her Britannic 
Majesty in North America, for the suppression of the African slave 
trade, and the surrender of criminals fugitive from justice in certain 
cases. 

Second. A correspondence on the subject of the interference of the 
colonial authorities of the British West Indies with American mer- 
chant vessels driven by stress of weather or carried by violence into 
the ports of those colonies. 

If this treaty shall receive the approbation of the Senate, it will 
terminate a difference respecting boundary which has long subsisted 
between the two Governments, has been the subject of several in- 
effectual attempts at settlement, and has sometimes led to great irrita- 
tion, not without danger of disturbing the existing peace. Both the 
United States and the States more immediately concerned have enter- 
tained no doubt of the validity of the American title to all the territory 
which has been in dispute, but that title was controverted and the Gov- 
ernment of the United States had agreed to make the dispute a subject 
of arbitration. One arbitration had been actually had. but had failed 
to settle the controversy, and it was found at the commencement of 
last year that a correspondence had been in progress between the two 
Governments for a joint commission, with an ultimate reference to an 
umpire or arbitrator with authority to make a final decision. That 
correspondence, however, had been retarded by various occurrences, 
and had come to no definite result when the special mission of Lord 
Ashburton was announced. This movement on the part of England 
afiforded in the judgment of the Executive a favorable opportunitv for 
making an attempt to settle this long-existing controversv by some 
agreement or treaty without further reference to arbitration. 



252 History of the United States. 

After sundry informal communications with the British minister 
upon the subject of the claims of the two countries to territory west 
of the Rocky Mountains, so little probability was found to exist of 
coming to any agreement on that subject at present that it was not 
thought expedient to make it one of the subjects of formal negotiation 
to be entered upon between this Government and the British minister 
as part of his duties under his special mission. 

By the treaty of 1783 the line of division along the rivers and lakes 
from the place where the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude strikes 
the St. Lawrence to the outlet of Lake Superior is invariably to be 
drawn through the middle of such waters, and not through the middle 
of their main channels. Such a line, if extended according to the 
literal terms of the treaty, would, it is obvious, occasionally intersect 
islands. The manner in which the commissioners of the two Govern- 
ments dealt with this difficult subject may be seen in their reports. 
But where the line thus following the middle of the river or water- 
course did not meet with islands, yet it was liable sometimes to leave 
the only practicable navigable channel altogether on one side. The 
treaty made no provision for the common use of the waters by the 
citizens and subjects of both countries. 

The treaty obligations subsisting between the two countries for the 
suppression of the African slave trade and the complaints made to 
this Government within the last three or four years, many of them 
but too well founded, of the visitation, seizure, and detention of Ameri- 
can vessels on that coast by British cruisers could not but form a 
delicate and highly important part of the negotiations which have 
now been held. 

The early and prominent part which the Government of the L^nited 
States has taken for the abolition of this unlawful and inhuman traffic 
is well known. By the tenth article of the treaty of Ghent it is de- 
clared that the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of 
humanity and justice, and that both His Majesty and the United 
States are desirous of continuing their efforts to promote its eniire 
abolition; and it is thereby agreed that both the contracting parties 
?!iall use their best endeavors to accomplish so desiraVile an object. 
The Government of the L^nited States has by law declared the African 
slave trade piracy, and at its suggestion other nations have made 
similar enactments. It has not been wanting in honest and zealous 
efiForts, made in conformitv with the wishes of the whole countrv. to 
accomplish the entire abolition of the traffic in slaves upon the African 




TENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



' ' John Tyler. 255 

coast, but these efforts and those of other countries directed to the 
same end have proved to a considerable degree unsuccessful. Treaties 
are known to have been entered into some years ago between Eng- 
land and Prance by which the former power, which usually maintains 
a large naval force on the African station, was authorized to seize and 
bring in for adjudication vessels found engaged in the slave trade 
under the French flag. 

It is known that in December last a treaty was signed in London 
by the representatives of England, France, Russia, Prussia, and 
Austria having for its professed object a strong and united effort of the 
live powers to put an end to the traffic. This treaty was not ofihcially 
communicated to the Government of the United States, but its pro- 
visions and stipulations are supposed to be accurately known to the 
public. It is understood to be not yet ratified on the part of France. 

No application or request has been made to this Government to 
become party to this treaty, but the course it might take in regard to 
it has excited no small degree of attention and discussion in Europe, 
as the principle upon which it is founded and the stipulations which 
it contains have caused warm animadversions and great political 
excitement. 

In my message at the commencement 01 the present session of 
Congress I endeavored to state the principles which this Government 
supports respecting the right of search and the immunity of flags. 
Desirous of maintaining those principles fully, at the same time that 
existing obligations should be fulfilled, I have thought it most con- 
sistent with the honor and dignity of the country that it should execute 
Its own laws and perform its own obligations by its owni means and 
its own power. 

The examination or visitation of the merchant vessels of one nation 
by the cruisers of another for any purpose except those known and 
acknowledged by the law of nations, under whatever restraints or 
regulations it may take place, may lead to dangerous results. It is 
far better by other means to supersede any supposed necessity or any 
motive for such examination or visit. Interference with a merchant 
vessel by an armed cruiser is always a delicate proceeding, apt to 
touch the point of national honor as well as to affect the interests of 
individuals. It has been thought, therefore, expedient, not only in 
accordance with the stipulations of the treaty of Ghent, but at the same 
time as removing all pretext on the part of others for violating the 
immunities of the American flag upon the seas, as they exist and are 



256 History of the United States. 

defined by the law of nations, to enter into the articles now submitted 
to the Senate. 

The treaty which I now submit proposes no alteration, mitigation, 
or modification of the rules of the law of nations. It provides simply 
that each of the two Governments shall maintain on the coast of 
Africa a sufficient squadron to enforce separately and respectively the 
laws, rights, and obligations of the two countries for the suppression 
of the slave trade. 

Another consideration of great importance has recommended this 
mode of fulfilling the duties and obligations of the country. Our 
commerce along the western coast of Africa is extensive, and sup- 
posed to be increasing. There is reason to think that in many cases 
those engaged in it have met with interruptions and annoyances caused 
by the jealousy and instigation of rivals engaged in the same trade. 
Many complaints on this subject have reached the Government. A 
respectable naval force on the coast is the natural resort and security 
against further occurrences of this kind. 

The surrender to justice of persons who, having committed high 
crimes, seek an asylum in the territories of a neighboring nation 
would seem to be an act due to the cause of general justice and prop- 
erly belonging to the present state of civilization and intercourse. The 
British Provinces of North America are separated from the States 
of the Union by a line of several thousand miles, and along portions of 
this line the amount of population on either side is quite considerable, 
while the passage of the boundary is always easy. 

Ofifenders against the law on the one side transfer themselves to 
the other. Sometimes, with great difficulty, they are brought to 
justice, but very often they wholly escape. A consciousness of im- 
munity from the power of avoiding justice in this way instigates the 
unprincipled and reckless to the commission of offenses, and the peace 
and good neighborhood of the border are consequently often disturbed. 

In the case of offenders fleeing from Canada into the United States, 
the governors of Slates are often applied to for their surrender, and 
questions of a very embarrassing nature arise from these applications. 
It has been thought highly important, therefore, to provide for the 
whole case by a proper treaty stipulati'on. The article on the subject 
in the proposed treaty is carefuJly confined to such offenses as all 
mankind agree to regard as heinous and destructive of the security of 
life and property. In this careful and specific enumeration of crimes 
the object has been to exclude all political offenses or criminal charges 



John Tyler. 257 

arising from wars or intestine commotions. Treason, misprision of 
treason, libels, desertion from military service and other offenses of 
similar character are excluded. 



Brevet Major-General Winfield Scott having been appointed (July 
5, 1841) by the President, by and with the consent and advice of the 
Senate, the Major-General of the Army of the United States, he is 
directed to assume the command and enter upon his duties accord- 
ingly. 

The season for active hostilities in Florida having nearly terminated 
(May 10, 1842), my attention has necessarily been directed to the 
cciurse of measures to be pursued hereafter in relation to the few In- 
dians yet remaining in that Territory. Their number is believed not 
to exceed 240, of whom there are supposed to be about 80 warriors, 
or males capable of bearing arms. The further pursuit of these 
miserable beings by a large military force seems to be as injudicious 
as it is unavailing. The history of the last year's campaign in Florida 
has satisfactorily shown that notwithstanding the vigorous and in- 
cessant operations of our troops (which can not be exceeded), the 
Indian mode of warfare, their dispersed condition, and the very small- 
ness of their number (which increases the difficulty of finding them in 
the abundant and almost inaccessible hiding places of the Territory) 
render anj- further attempt to secure them by force impracticable ex- 
cept by the employment of the most expensive means. The exhibi- 
tion of force and the constant efforts to capture or destroy them of 
course places them i)eyond the reach of overtures to surrender. It is 
believed by the distinguished oflficer in command there that a different 
system should now be pursued to attain the entire removal of all the 
Indians in Florida, and he recommends that hostilities should cease 
unless the renewal of them be rendered necessary by new aggressions ; 
that communications should be opened by means of the Indians with 
him to insure them a peaceful and voluntar}' surrender, and that the 
military operations should hereafter be directed to the protection of 
the inhabitants. 

SFXONn ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 6. 1S42. 

T felt it to be my duty to cause to be submitted the plan of an 
exchequer, the whole power and duty of maintaining which in purity 



258 History of the United States. 

and vigor was to be exercised by the representatives of the people and 
the States, and therefore virtually by the people themselves. It was 
proposed to place it under the control and direction of a Treasury 
board to consist of three commissioners, whose duty it should be to 
see that the law of its creation was faithfully executed and that the 
great end of supplying a paper medium of exchange at all times con- 
vertible into gold and silver should be attained. The board thus 
constituted was given as much permanency as could be imparted to 
it without endangering the proper share of responsibility which should 
attach to all public agents. 

In order to insure all the advantages of a well-matured experience, 
the commissioners were to hold their ofifices for the respective periods 
of two, four, and six years, thereby securing at all times in the manage- 
ment of the exchequer the services of two men of experience; and to 
place them in a condition to exercise perfect independence of mind and 
action it was provided that their removal should only take place for 
actual incapacity or infidelity to the trust, and to be followed by the 
President with an exposition of the causes of such removal, should it 
occur. 

It was proposed to establish subordinate boards in each of the 
States, under the same restrictions and limitations of the power of re- 
moval, which, with the central board, should receive, safely keep, and 
disburse the public moneys. And in order to furnish a sound paper 
medium of exchange the exchequer should retain of the revenues of 
the Government a sum not to exceed $5,000,000 in specie, to be set 
apart as ref|uired by its operations, and to pay the public creditor at 
his own option either in specie or Treasury notes of denominations not 
less than $5 nor exceeding $100, which notes should be redeemed at 
the several places of issue, and to be receivable at all times and every- 
where in payment of Government dues, with a restraint upon such 
issue of bills that the same should not exceed the maximum o! 
5^15,000,000. In or<ler to guard against all the hazard<= incident to 
fluctuations in trade, the Secretary of the Treasury w^as invested with 
authority to issue $5,000,000 of Government stock, should the same 
at any time be regarded as necessary in order to place beyond hazard 
the prompt redemption of the bills which might be thrown into cir- 
culation; thus in fact making the issue of $15,000,000 of exchequer 
bills rest substantially on $10,000,000, and keeping in circulation never 
more than one and one-half dollars for every dollar of specie. 



John Tyler. 259 

When to this it is added that the bills are not only everywhere re- 
ceivable in Government dues, but that the Government itself would 
be bound for their ultimate redemption, no rational doubt could exist 
that the paper which the exchequer would furnish would readily enter 
into general circulation and be maintained at all times at or above par 
with gold and silver, thereby realizing the great want of the age and 
fulfilling the wishes of the people. In order to reimburse the Gov- 
ernment the expenses of the plan, it was proposed to invest the ex- 
chequer with the limited authority to deal in bills of exchange, unless 
prohibited by the State in which an agency might be situated, having 
only thirty days to run and resting on a fair and bona fide basis. The 
legislative will on this point might be so plainly announced as to avoid 
all pretext for partiality or favorism. 

It was furthermore proposed to invest this Treasury agent 
with authority to receive on deposit to a limited amount the 
specie funds of individuals and to grant certificates therefor to 
be redeemed on presentation, under the idea, which is be- 
lieved to be well founded, that such certificates would come in aid 
of the exchequer bills in supplying a safe and ample paper circulation. 
Or if in place of the contemplated dealings in exchange the exchequer 
should be authorized not only to exchange its bills for actual deposits 
of specie, but, for specie or its equivalent, to sell drafts, charging there- 
for a small but reasonable premium, I can not doubt but that the bene- 
fits of the law would be speedily manifested in the revival of the credit, 
trade, and business of the whole country. Entertaining this opinion, 
it becomes my duty to urge its adoption upon Congress by reference to 
the strongest considerations of the public interests, with such altera- 
tions in its details as Congress may in its wisdom see fit to make. 

I am well aware tliat this proposed alteration and amendment of the 
laws establishing the Treasurv Department has encountered various 
objections, and that among others it has been proclaimed a Govern- 
ment bank of fearful and dangerous import. It is proposed to confer 
upon it no extraordinary power. It purports to do no more than pay 
the debts of the Government with the redeemable paper of the Govern- 
ment, in which respect it accomplishes precisely what the Treasury 
does dailv at this time in issuing to the public creditors the Treasury 
notes which under law it is authorized to issue. It has no resem- 
blance to an ordinary bank, as it furnishes no profits to private stock- 
holders and lends no capital to individuals. If it be obiected to as a 
Government bank and the objection be available, then should all the 



26o History of the United States. 

laws in relation to the Treasury be repealed and the capacity of the 
Government to collect what is due to it or pay what it owes be abro- 
gated. 

This is the chief purpose of the proposed exchequer, and surely if 
in the accomplishment of a purpose so essential it afi'ords a sound 
circulating medium to the country and facilities to trade it should be 
regarded as no slight recommendation of it to public consideration. 
Properly guarded by the provisions of law, it can run into no danger- 
ous evil, nor can any abuse arise under it but such as the Legislature 
itself will be answerable for if it be tolerated, since it is but the creature 
of the law and is susceptible at all times of modification, amendment, 
or repeal at the pleasure of Congress. 

There can be but three kinds of public currency — first, gold and 
silver; second, the paper of State institutions; or, third, a representa- 
tive of the precious metals provided by the General Government or 
under its authority. The subtreasury system rejected the last in any 
form, and as it was believed that no reliance could be placed on the 
issues of local institutions for the purposes of general circulation it 
necessarily and unavoidably adopted specie as the exclusive currency 
for its own use; and this must ever be the case unless one of the other 
kinds be used. The choice in the present state of public sentiment 
lies between an exclusive specie currency on the one hand and Gov- 
ernment issues of some kind on the other. That these issues can not 
be made by a chartered institution is supposed to be conclusively set- 
tled. They must be made, then, directly by Government agents. For 
several years past tb^ey have been thus made in the form of Treasury 
notes, and have answered a valuable purpose. Their usefulness has 
been limited by their being transient and temporary; their ceasing to 
bear interest at given periods necessarily causes their speedy return 
and thus restricts their range of circulation, and being used only in 
the disbursements of Government they can not reach those points 
where they are most required. By rendering their use permanent, to 
the moderate extent already mentioned, by offering no inducement for 
their return and by exchanging them for coin and other values, they 
will constitute to a certain extent the general currency so much needed 
to maintain the internal trade of the country. And this is the excheq- 
uer plan so far as it m^y operate in furnishing a currency. 

1 can not forego the occasion to urge its importance to the credit of 
the Government in a financial point of view. The great necessity of 
resorting to every proper and becoming expedient in order to place 



John Tyler, 261 

the Treasury on a footing of the highest respectabiUty is entirely 
obvious. The credit of the Government may be regarded as the very 
soul of the Government itself — a principle of vitality without which 
all its movements are languid and all its operations embarrassed. 



Owing to their locality and to the course of the winds which prevail 
in this quarter of the world, the Sandwich Islands are the stQpping 
place for almost all vessels passing from continent to continent across 
the Pacific Ocean. They are especially resorted to by the great num- 
ber of vessels of the United States which are engaged in the whale 
fishery in these seas. The number of vessels of all sorts and the 
amount of property owned by citizens of the United States which are 
found in those islands in the course of the year are stated probably 
with sufficient accuracy in the letter of the agents. 

Just emerging from a state of barbarism, the Government of the 
islands is as yet feeble, but its dispositions appear to be just and pacific, 
and it seems anxious to improve the condition of its people by the in- 
troduction of knowledge, of religious and moral institutions, means 
of education, and the arts of civilized life. 

It can not but be in conformity with the interest and wishes of the 
Government and the people of the United States that this community, 
thus existing in the midst of a vast expanse of ocean, should be re- 
spected and all its rights strictly and conscientiously regarded; and 
this must also be the true interest of all other commercial states. Far 
remote from the dominions of European powers, its growth and pros- 
perity as an independent state may yet be in a high degree useful to 
all whose trade is extended to those regions; while its near approach 
to this continent and the intercourse which American vessels have with 
it, such vessels constituting five-sixths of all which annually visit it, 
could not but create dissatisfaction on the part of the United States 
at any attempt by another power, should such attempt be threatened 
or feared, to take possession of the islands, colonize them, and subvert 
the native Government. Considering, therefore, that the United 
States possesses so large a share of the intercourse with those islands, 
it is deemed not unfit to make the declaration that their Government 
seeks, nevertheless, no peculiar advantages, no exclusive control over 
the Hawaiian Government, but is content with its independent exist- 
ence and anxiously wishes for its security and prosperity. Its forbear- 



262 History of the United States. 

ance in this respect under the circumstances of the very large inter- 
course of their citizens with the islands would justify this Government, 
should events hereafter arise to require it, in making a decided re- 
monstrance against the adoption of an opposite policy by any other 
power. Under the circumstances I recommend to Congress to pro- 
vide for a moderate allowance to be made out of the Treasury to the 
consul residing there, that in a Government so new and a country so 
remote American citizens may have respectable authority to which to 
apply for redress in case of injury to their person and property, and 
to whom the Government of the country may also make known any 
acts committed by American citizens of which it may think it has a 
right to complain. 

Events of considerable importance have recently transpired in 
China. The military operations carried on against that Empire by 
the English Government have been terminated by a treaty, according 
to the terms of wdiich four important ports hitherto shut against for- 
eign commerce are to be open to British merchants, viz. : Amoy, Foo- 
Choo-Foo, Ningpo, and Chinghai. It can not but be interesting to 
the mercantile interest of the United States, whose intercourse wath 
China at the single port of Canton has already become so considerable, 
to ascertain whether these other ports now open to British commerce 
are to remain shut, nevertheless, against the commerce of the United 
States. The treaty between the Chinese Government and the British 
commissioner provides neither for the admission nor the exclusion of 
the ships of other nations. It would seem, therefore, tha<: it remains 
with every other nation having commercial intercourse with China to 
seek to make proper arrangements for itself with the Government of 
that Empire in this respect. 

The importations into the United States from China are known to 
be large, having amounted in some years, as will be seen by the an- 
nexed tables, to $9,000,000. The experts, too, from the United States 
to China constitute nn interesting and growing part of the commerce 
of the country. It appears that in the year 1841, in the direct trade 
between the two countries, the value of the exports from the United 
States amounted to $715,000 in domestic produce and $485,000 in 
foreign merchandise. But the whole amount of American produce 
which finally reaches China and is there consumed is not comprised 
in these tables, which show only the direct trade. Many vessels with 
American products on board sail with a primary' destination to other 
countries, but ultimately dispose of more or less of their cargoes in the 
port of Canton. 



/ / ' ■ / 



>..<,./^ 




•> 






PAGE OF WEBSTER-ASHBURTON TREATY, RATIFIED IN JOHN 
TYLER'S AD^IINISTRATION. 






^ r^TC^-^-^^l^^yO^-fy^ ^ ^-Y^^^ f^^X'/^-Cl^ li^^K^^^y 









^Z^c?e^c^c/ ^ ^^^,- ^'!^<:a?/,^- y^.u^-j-iy-^j. 




7 3/^/^ ^^^ U^f^y^^^^-^n^/^-: J 




/ 



PRESIDENT TYLER'S SIGNATURE ON THE RATIFICATION OF 
THE WEBSTER-ASHBURTON TREATY. 



John Tyler. 265 

The peculiarity of the Chinese Government and the Chinese charac- 
ter are well known. An Empire supposed to contain 300,000,000 sub- 
jects, fertile in various rich products of the earth, not without the 
knowledge of letters and of many arts, and with large and expensive ac- 
commodations for internal intercourse and traffic, has for ages sought 
to exclude the visits of strangers and foreigners from its dominions, and 
has assumed for itself a superiority over all other nations. Events ap- 
pear likely to break down and soften this spirit of nonintercourse and to 
bring China ere long into the relations which usually subsist between 
civilized states. She has agreed in the treaty with England that cor- 
respondence between the agents of the two Governments shall be on 
equal terms — a concession which it is hardly probable will hereafter 
be withheld from other nations. 

It is true that the cheapness of labor among the Chinese, their in- 
genuity in its application, and the fixed character of their habits and 
pursuits may discourage the hope of the opening of any great and 
sudden demand for the fabrics of other countries. But experience 
proves that the productions of western nations find a market to some 
extent among the Chinese ; that that market, so far as respects the pro- 
ductions of the United States, although it has considerably varied in 
successive seasons, has on the whole more than doubled within the last 
ten years; and it can hardly be doubted that the opening of several 
new and important ports connected with parts of the Empire hereto- 
fore seldom visited by Europeans or Americans would exercise a 
favorable influence upon the demand for such productions. 

It is not understood that the immediate establishment of correspond- 
ent embassies and missions or the permanent residence of diplomatic 
functionaries wath full powers of each country at the Court of the 
other is contemplated between England and China, although, as has 
been already observed, it has been stipulated that intercourse between 
the two countries shall hereafter be on equal terms. An ambassador 
or envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary can only be ac- 
credited, according to the usages of western nations, to the head or 
sovereign of the state, and it may be doubtful whether the Court of 
Pekin is yet prepared to conform to these usages so far as to receive 
a minister plenipotentiary to reside near it. 

Being of opinion, however, that the commercial interests of the 
United States connected with China require at the present moment 
a degree of attention and vigilance such as there is no agent of this 
Government on the spot to bestow, I recommend to Congress to make 



266 History of the United States. 

appropriation for the compensation of a commissioner to reside in 
China to exercise a watchful care over the concerns of American citi- 
zens and for the protection of their persons and property, empowered 
to hold intercourse with the local authorities, and ready, under instruc- 
tions from this Government, should such instructions become neces- 
sary and proper hereafter, to address himself to the high functionaries 
of the Empire, or through them to the Emperor himself. 

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER, 1843. 

Since the last adjournment of Congress the Executive has relaxed 
no effort to render indestructible the relations of amity which so hap- 
pily exist between the United States and other countries. The treaty 
lately concluded with Great Britain has tended greatly to increase the 
good understanding which a reciprocity of interests is calculated to en- 
courage, and it is most ardently to be hoped that nothing may trans- 
pire to interrupt the relations of amity which it is so obviously the 
policy of both nations to cultivate. A question of much importance 
still remains to be adjusted between them. The territorial limits of 
the two countries in relation to what is commonly know-n as the Ore- 
gon Territory still remain in dispute. The United States would be at 
all times indisposed to aggrandize itself at the expense of any other 
nation; but while they would be restrained by principles of honor, 
which should govern the conduct of nations as well as that of individu- 
als, from setting up a demand for territory which does not belong to 
them, they w^ould as unwillingly consent to a surrender of their rights. 
After the most rigid and, as far as practicable, unbiased examination 
of the subject, the United States have ahvays contended that their 
rights appertain to the entire region of country lying on the Pacific 
and embraced within 42° and 54° 40' of north latitude. This claim 
being controverted by Great Britain, those who have preceded the 
present Executive — actuated, no doubt, by an earnest desire to adjust 
the matter upon terms mutually satisfactory to both countries — have 
caused to be submitted to the British Government propositions for 
settlement and final adjustment, which, however, have not proved 
heretofore acceptable to it. Our minister at London has, under in- 
structions, again brought the siibject to the consideration of that Gov- 
ernment, and while nothing will be done to compromit the rights or 
honor of the Ignited States, every proper expedient will be resorted to 
in order to bring the negotiation now in the progress of resumption to 
a speedy and happy termination. In fhe meantime it is proper to re- 



John Tyler. 267 

mark that many of our citizens are either already estabhshed in the 
Territory or are on their way thither for the purpose of forming per- 
manent settlements, while others are preparing to follow; and in view 
of these facts I must repeat the recommendation contained in previous 
messages for the establishment of military posts at such places on the 
line of travel as will furnish security and protection to our hardy ad- 
venturers against hostile tribes of Indians inhabiting those extensive 
regions. Our laws should also follow them, so modified as the cir- 
cumstances of the case may seem to require. Under the influence 
of our free system of government new republics are destined to spring 
up at no distant day on the shores of the Pacific similar in policy and 
in feeling to those existing on this side of the Rocky Mountains, and 
giving a wider and more extensive spread to the principles of civil and 
religious liberty. 

Measures of an unusual character have recently been adopted by the 
Mexican Government, calculated in no small degree to afifect the trade 
of other nations in Mexico and to operate injuriously to the United 
States. All foreigners, by a decree of the 23d day of September, and 
after six months from the day of its promulgation, are forbidden to 
carry on the business of selling by retail any goods within the confines 
of Mexico. Against this decree our minister has not failed to re- 
monstrate. 

The trade heretofore carried on by our citizens with Santa Fe, in 
which much capital was already invested and which was becoming of 
daily increasing importance, has suddenly been arrested by a decree 
of virtual prohibition on the part of the Mexican Government. What- 
ever may be the right of Mexico to prohibit any particular course of 
trade to the citizens or subjects of foreign powers, this late procedure, 
to say the least of it, wears a harsh and unfriendly aspect. 

In connection with its other interests, as well as those of the whole 
country, I recommend that at your present session you adopt such 
measures in order to carry into effect the Smithsonian bequest as in 
your judgment will be best calculated to consummate the liberal in- 
tent of the testator. 



I can not forbear urging upon you the importance (February 23, 
1844) of constructing, upon the principles which have been brought 
into use in the construction of the " Princeton," several ships of war of 
a larger class, better fitted than that ship to the heavy armament which 



268 History of the United States. | 

should be placed on board of them. The success which has so emin- 
ently crowned this first experiment should encourage Congress to lose 
no time in availing the country of all the important benefits so obviously 
destined to fiow from it. Other nations v^ill speedily give their at- 
tention to this subject, and it would be criminal in the United States, 
the first to apply to practical purposes the great power which has been 
brought into use, to permit others to avail themselves of our improve- 
ments while we stood listlessly and supinely by. In the number of 
steam vessels of war we are greatly surpassed by other nations, and 
yet to Americans is the world indebted for that great discovery of the 
means of successfully applying steam power which has in the last 
quarter century so materially changed the condition of the world. 
We have now taken another and even bolder step, the results of which 
upon the afifairs of nations remain still to be determined, and I can not 
but flatter myself that it will be followed up without loss of time to 
the full extent of the public demands. 

The application of steam power to ships of war no longer confines 
us to the seaboard in their construction. The urgent demands of 
the service for the Gulf of Mexico and the substitution of iron for 
wood in the construction of ships plainly point to the establishment of 
a navy-yard at some suitable place on the Mississippi. The coal fields 
and iron mines of the extensive region watered by that noble river 
recommended such an establishment, while high considerations of 
public policy would lead to the same conclusion. 

One of the complaints of the Western States against the actual 
operation of our system of government is that while large and increas- 
ing expenditures of public money are made on the Atlantic frontier 
the expenditures in the interior are comparatively small. The time 
has now arrived when this cause of complaint may be in a great meas- 
ure removed bv adopting the legitimate and necessary policy which 
I have indicated, thereby throwing around the States another bond 
of union. 



I transmit herewith, for approval and ratification (April 22. 1844^ 
a treaty which I have caused to be negotiated between the United 
States and Texas, whereby the latter, on the conditions therein set 
forth, has transferred and conveved all its right of separate and inde- 
pendent sovereignty and jurisdiction to the United States. In tak- 



John Tyler. 269 

ing- so important a step I have been influenced by what appeared to 
me to be the most controlhng considerations of pubhc pohcy and the 
general good, and in having accomphshed it, should it meet with your 
approval, the Government will have succeeded in reclaiming a terri- 
tory which formerly constituted a portion, as it is confidently believed, 
of its domain under the treaty of cession of 1803 by France to the 
United States. 

The country thus proposed to be annexed has been settled princi- 
pally by persons from the United States, who immigrated on the in- 
vitation of both Spain and Mexico, and who carried with them into 
the wilderness which they have partially reclaimed the laws, customs, 
and political and domestic institutions of their native land. They are 
deeply indoctrinated in all the principles of civil liberty, and will bring 
along with them in the act of reassociation devotion to our Union and 
a firm and inflexible resolution to assist in maintaining the public 
liberty unimpaired — a consideration which, as it appears to me, is 
to be regarded as of no small moment. The country itself thus ob- 
tained is of incalculable value in an agricultural and commercial point 
of view. To a soil of inexhaustible fertility it unites a genial and 
healthy climate, and is destined at a day not distant to make large con- 
tributions to the commerce of the world. Its territory is separated 
from the United States in part by an imaginary line, and by the river 
Sabine for a distance of 310 miles, and its productions are- the same 
with those of many of the contiguous States of the Union. Such is 
the country, such are its inhabitants, and such its capacities to add to 
the general wealth of the Union. As to the latter, it may be safely 
asserted that in the magnitude of its productions it will equal in a 
short time, under the protecting" care of this Government, if it does 
not surpass, the combined production of many of the States of the 
Confederacy. 

A new and powerful impulse will thus be given to the navig-ating 
interest of the country, which will be chiefly engrossed by our fellow- 
citizens of the Eastern and Middle States, who have already attained 
a remarkable degree of prosperity by the partial monopoly they have 
enjoyed of the carrying trade of the Union, particularly the coastwise 
trade, which this new acquisition is destined in time, and that not dis- 
tant, to swell to a magnitude which can not easily be computed, while 
the addition made to the boundaries of the home market thus secured 
to their mining, manufacturing, and mechanical skill and industry 
will be of a character the most commanding and important. Such 



270 History of the United States. 

are some of the many advantages which will accrue to the Eastern and 
Middle States by the ratification of the treaty — advantages the extent 
of which it is impossible to estimate with accuracy or properly to ap- 
preciate. Texas, being adapted to the culture of cotton, sugar, and 
rice, and devoting most of her energies to the raising of these pro- 
ductions, will open an extensive market to the Western States in the 
important articles of beef, pork, horses, mules, etc., as well as in 
breadstuffs. 

At the same time, the Southern and Southeastern States will find in 
the fact of annexation protection and security to their peace and tran- 
quillity, as well against all domestic as foreign efiforts to disturb them, 
this consecrating anew the Union of the States and holding out the 
promise of its perpetual duration. Thus, at the same time that the 
tide of public prosperity is greatly swollen, an appeal of what appears 
to the Executive to be of an imposing, if not of a resistless, character 
is made to the interests of every portion of the country. 

Texas, for reasons deemed sufificient by herself, threw off her de- 
pendence on Mexico as far back as 1836, and consummated her inde- 
pendence by the battle of San Jacinto in the same year, since which 
period Mexico has attempted no serious invasion of her territory, but 
the contest has assumed features of a mere border war, characterized 
by acts revolting to humanity. In the year 1836 Texas adopted her 
constitution, under which she has existed as a sovereign power ever 
since, having been recognized as such by many of the principal powers 
of the world; and contemporaneously with its adoption, by a solemn 
vote of her people, embracing all her population but ninety-three 
persons, declared her anxious desire to be admitted into association 
with the United States as a portion of their territory. This vote, thus 
solemnly taken, has never been reversed, and now by the action of her 
constituted authorities, sustained as it is by popular sentiment, she 
reaffirms her desire for annexation. This course has been adopted bv 
her without the employment of any sinister measures on the part of 
this Government. No intrigue has been set on foot to accomplish it. 
Texas herself wills it. and the Executive of the I'^nited States, concur- 
ring with her, has seen no sufficient reason to avoid the consummation 
of an act esteemed to be so desirable by both. 

It can not be denied that Texas is greatlv depressed in her energies 
by her long-protracted war with Mexico. Under these circumstances 
it is but natural that she should seek for safety and repose under the 
protection of some stronger power, and it is equally so that her people 



John Tyler. 271 

should turn to the United States, the land of their birth, in the first 
instance in the pursuit of such protection. She has often before made 
known her wishes, but her advances have to this time been repelled. 
The Executive of the United States sees no longer any cause for pur- 
suing such a course. The hazard of now defeating her wishes may be 
of the most fatal tendency. It might load, and most probably would, 
to such an entire alienation of sentiment and feeling as would inevi- 
tably induce her to look elsewhere for aid, and force her either to 
enter into dangerous alliances with other nations, who, looking with 
more wisdom to their own interests, would, it is fairly to be presumed, 
readily adopt such expedients; or she would hold out the proffer of 
discriminating duties in trade and commerce in order to secure the 
necessary assistance. Whatever step che might adopt looking to this 
object would prove disastrous in the highest degree to the interests of 
the whole Union. To say nothing of the impolicy of our permitting 
the carrying trade and home market of such a country to pass out of 
our hands into those of a commercial rival, the Government, in the 
first place, would be certain to suffer most disastrously in its revenue 
by the introduction of a system of smuggling upon an extensive scale, 
which an army of custom-house officers could not prevent, and which 
would operate to affect injuriously the interests of all the industrial 
classes of this country. Hence would arise constant collisions between 
the inhabitants of the two countries, which would evermore endanger 
their peace. A large increase of the military force of the United 
States would inevitably follow, thus devolving upon the people new 
and extraordinary burdens in order not only to protect them from dan- 
ger of daily collision with Texas herself, but to guard their border in- 
habitants against hostile inroads, so easily excited on the part of the 
numerous and warlike tribes of Indians dwelling in their neigh- 
borhood. 

TQxas would undoubtedly be unable for many years to come, if at 
any time, to resist unaided and alone the military power of the United 
States; but it is not extravagant to suppose that nations reaping a 
rich harvest from her trade, secured to them by advantageous treaties, 
would be induced to take part with her in any conflict with us, from the 
strongest considerations of public policy. Such a state of things 
miight subject to devastation the territory of contiguous States, and 
would cost the country in a single campaign more treasure, thrice 
told over, than is stipulated to be paid and reimbursed by the treaty 
now proposed for ratification. I will not permit myself to dwell on 



272 History of the United States. 

this view of the subject. Consequences of a fatal character to the 
Deace of the Union, and even to the preservation of the Union itself, 
might be dwelt upon. They will not, however, fail to occur to the 
mind of the Senate and of the country. Nor do I indulge in any 
vague conjectures of the future. The documents now transmitted 
along with the treaty lead to the conclusion, as inevitable, that if the 
boon now tendered be rejected, Texas will seek for the friendship of 
others In contemplating such a contingency it can not be over- 
looked that the United States are already almost surrounded by the 
possession of European powers. The Canadas, New Brunswick, and 
Nova Scotia, the islands in the American seas, with Texas trammeled 
by treaties of alliance or of a commercial character differing in policy 
from that of the United States, would complete the circle. 

Texas voluntarily steps forth, upon terms of perfect honor and good 
faith to all nations, to ask to be annexed to the Union. As an inde- 
pendent sovereignty her right to do this is unquestionable. In doing 
so she gives no cause of umbrage to any other power; her people desire 
it, and there is no slavish transfer of her sovereignty and independence. 
She has for eight years maintained her independence against all ef- 
forts to subdue her. She has been recognized as independent by 
many of the most prominent of the family of nations, and that recog- 
nition, so far as they are concerned, places her in a position, without 
giving any just cause of umbrage to them, to surrender her sover- 
eignty at her own will and pleasure. The United States, actuated 
evermore by a spirit of justice, has desired by the stipulations of the 
treaty to render justice to all. They have made provision for the pay- 
ment of the public debt of Texas. We look to her ample and fertile 
domain as the certain means of accomplishing this; but this is a mat- 
ter between the United States and Texas, and with which other Gov- 
ernments have nothing to do. Our right to receive the rich grant 
tendered by Texas is perfect, and this Government should not, having 
due respect either to its own honor or its own business interests, per- 
mit its course of policy to be interrupted by the interference of other 
powers,, even if such interference were threatened. The question is 
one purely American. In the acquisition, while we abstain most care- 
fully from all that could interrupt the public peace, we claim the right 
to exercise a due regard to our own. This Government can not con- 
sistently with its honor permit any such interference. 

To Mexico the Executive is disposed to pursue a course conciliatory 
in its character and at the same time to render her the most ample 



John Tyler. 273 

justice by 'conventions and stipulations not inconsistent with the 
rights and dignity of the Government. It is actuated by no spirit 
of unjust aggrandizement, but looks only to its own security. It has 
made known to Mexico at several periods its extreme anxiety to wit- 
ness the termination of hostilities between that country and Texas. 
Its wishes, however, have been entirely disregarded. It has ever been 
ready to urge an adjustment of the dispute upon terms mutually ad- 
vantageous to both. It will be ready at all times to hear and discuss 
any claims Mexico may think she has on the justice of the United 
States and to adjust any that may be deemed to be so on the most 
liberal terms. There is no desire on the part of the Executive to 
wound her pride or affect injuriously her interest, but at the same 
time it can not compromit by any delay in its action the essential in- 
terests of the United States. Mexico has no right to ask or to expect 
this of us; we deal rightfully with Texas as an independent power. 
The war which has been waged for eight years has resulted only in 
the conviction with all others than herself that Texas can not be 
reconquered. 

I can not but repeat the opinion expressed in my message at the 
opening of Congress that it is time it had ceased. The Executive, 
while it could not look upon its longer continuance without the great- 
est uneasiness, has, nevertheless, for all past time preserved a course 
of strict neutrality. 

But one view of the subject remains to be presented. It grows out 
of the proposed enlargement of our territory. From this, I am free 
to confess, I see no danger. The federative system is susceptible of 
the greatest extension compatible with the ability of the representa- 
tion of the most distant State or Territory to reach the seat of Gov- 
ernment in time to participate in the fu-nctions of legislation and to 
make known the wants of the constituent body. Our confederated 
Republic consisted originally of thirteen members. It now consists 
of twice that number, while applications are before Congress to per- 
mit other additions. 

This addition of New States has served to strengthen rather than to 
weaken the Union. New interests have sprung up. which require the 
united power of all, through the action of the common Government, 
to protect and defend upon the high seas and in foreign parts. Each 
State commits with perfect security to that common Government those 
great interests growing o-ut of our relations with other nations of the 
world, and which equally involve the good of all the States. Its do- 



274 History of the United States. 

mestic concerns are left to its own exclusive management. But if 
there were any force in the objection it would seem to require an im- 
mediate abandonment of territorial possessions which lie in the dis- 
tance and stretch to a far-off sea, and yet no one would be found, it is 
believed, ready to recommend such an abandonment. Texas lies at 
our very doors and in our immediate vicinity. 

Under every view which I have been able to take of the subject, I 
think that the interests of our common constituents, the people of all 
the States, and a love of the Union left the Executive no other al- 
ternative than to negotiate the treaty. The high and solemn duty of 
ratifying" or rejecting it is wisely devolved on the Senate by the 
Constitution of the United States. 



In my message communicating the treaty (May i6, 1844) with 
Texas I expressed the opinion that if Texas was not now annexed it 
was probable that the opportunity of annexing it to the United States 
would be lost forever. Since then the subject has been much agitated, 
and if an opinion may be formed of the chief ground of the opposition 
to the treaty, it is not that Texas ought not at some time or other to be 
annexed, but that the present is not the proper time. It becomes, 
therefore, important, in this view of the subject, and is alike due to 
the Senate and the country, that I should furnish any papers in my 
possession which may be calculated to impress the Senate with the 
correctness of the opinion thus expressed by me. With this view 
I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, accompanied by vari- 
ous communications on the subject. These communications are 
from private sources, and it is to be remarked that a resort must in all 
such cases be had chiefly to private sources of information, since it is 
not to be expected that any government, more especially if situated as 
Texas is, would be inclined to develop to the world its ulterior line of 
policy. 

Among the extracts is one from a letter from General Houston to 
General Andrew Jackson, to which I particularly invite your at- 
tention, and another from General Jackson to a gentleman of high re- 
spectability, now of this place. Considering that General Jackson 
was placed in a situation to hold the freest and fullest interview w'ith 
Mr. Miller, the private and confidential secretary of President Houston, 
who, President Houston informed General Jackson, " knows all his 



John Tyler. 275 

actions and understands all his motives," and who was authorized 
to communicate to General Jackson the views of the policy enter- 
tained by the President of Texas, as well applicable to the present as 
the future; that the declaration made by General Jackson in his letter 
" that the present golden moment to obtain Texas must not be lost, 
or Texas might from necessity be thrown into the arms of England 
and be forever lost to the United States," was made with a full knowl- 
edge of all circumstances, and ought to be received as conclusive 
of what will be the course of Texas should the present treaty fail — 
from this high source, sustained, if it requires to be sustained, by the 
accompanying communications, I entertain not the least doubt that 
if annexation should now fail it vv'ill in all human probability fail 
forever. Indeed, I have strong reasons to believe that instructions 
have already been given by the Texan Government to propose to the 
Government of Great Britain, forthwith on the failure, to enter into 
a treaty of commerce and an alliance offensive and defensive. 

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE. DECEMBER 3, 1 844. 

The treaty with Texas which had been negotiated failed to receive 
the ratification of the Senate. One of the chief objections which was 
urged against it was found to consist in the fact that the question 
of annexation had not been submitted to the ordeal of public opinion 
in the United States. However untenable such an objection was 
esteemed to be, in view of the unquestionable powxr of the Executive 
to negotiate the treaty and the great and lasting interests involved in 
the question, I felt it to be my duty to submit the whole subject to 
Congress as the best expounders of popular sentiment. No definitive 
action having been taken on the subject by Congress, the question re- 
ferred itself directly to the decision of the States and people. The 
great popular election which has just terminated afforded the best op- 
portunity of ascertaming the will of the States and the people upon it. 
Pending that issue it became the im.perative duty of the Executive to 
inform IMexico that the question of annexation was still before the 
American people, and that until their decision was pronounced any 
serious invasion of Texas would be regarded as an attempt to forestall 
their judgment and could not be looked upon with indifference. I 
am most happy to inform you that no such invasion has taken place; 
and I trust that wdiatever your action may be upon it Mexico will see 
the importance of deciding the matter by a resort to peaceful ex- 
pedients in preference to those of arms. 



276 History of the United States. 

The decision of the people and the States on this great and interest- 
ing subject has been decisively manifested. The question of an- 
nexation has been presented nakedly to their consideration. By 
the treaty itself all collateral and incidental issues which were cal- 
culated to divide and distract the public councils were carefully 
avoided. These were left to the wisdom of the future to determine. 
It presented, I repeat, the isolated question of annexation, and in that 
form it has been submitted to the ordeal of public sentiment. A con- 
trolling majority of the people and a large majority of the States have 
declared in favor of immediate annexation. Instructions have thus 
come up to both branches of Congress from their respective con- 
stituents in terms the most emphatic. It is the will of both the people 
and the States that Texas shall be annexed to the Union promptly and 
immediately. It may be hoped that in carrying into execution the 
public will thus declared all collateral issues may be avoided. Future 
Legislatures can best decide as to the number of States which should 
be formed out of the territory when the time has arrived for deciding 
that question. So with all others. By the treaty the United States 
assumed the payment of the debts of Texas to an amount not exceed- 
ing $10,000,000, to be paid, with the exception of a sum falling short 
of $400,000, exclusively out of the proceeds of the sales of her public 
lands. We could not with honor take the lands without assuming the 
full payment of all incumbrances upon them. 

The greatly improved condition of the Treasury afYords a subject for 
general congratulation. The paralysis which had fallen on trade 
and commerce, and which subjected the Government to the necessity 
of resorting to loans and the issue of Treasury notes to a large amount, 
has passed away, and after the payment of upward of $7,000,000 on 
account of the interest, and in redemption of more than $5,000,000 
of the public debt which falls due on the ist of January next, and 
setting apart upward of $2,000,000 for the payment of outstanding 
Treasury notes and meeting an installment of the debts of the cor- 
porate cities of the District of Columbia, an estimated surplus of 
upward of $7,000,000 over and above the existing appropriations will 
remain in the Treasury at the close of the fiscal year. Should the 
Treasury notes continue outstanding as heretofore, that surplus will 
be considerably augmented. Although all interest has ceased upon 
them and the Government has invited their return to the Treasury, yet 
they remain outstanding, affording great facilities to commerce, and es- 
tablishing the fact that under a well-regulated system of finance the 



John Tyler. 277 

Government has resources within itself which render it independent 
in time of need, not only of private loans, but also of bank facilities. 
I can not too strongly urge the policy of authorizing the establish- 
ment of a line of steamships regularly to ply between this country 
and foreign ports and upon our own waters for the transportation of 
the mail. The example of the British Government is well worthy of 
imitation in this respect. The belief is strongly entertained that 
emoluments arising from the transportation of mail matter to foreign 
countries would operate of itself as an inducement to cause individual 
enterprise to undertake that branch of tlie task, and the remuneration 
of the Government would consist in the addition readily made to our 
steam navy in case of emergency by the ships so employed. Should 
this suggestion meet your approval, the propriety of placing such ships 
under the command of experienced officers of the Navy will not es- 
cape your observation. The application of steam to the purposes of 
naval warfare cogently recommends an extensive steam marine as 
important in estimating the defenses of the country. Fortunately 
this may be obtained by us to a great extent without incurring any 
large amount of expenditure. Steam vessels to be engaged in the 
transportation of the mails on our principal water-courses, lakes, and 
ports of our coast could also be so constructed as to be efficient as 
war vessels when needed, and would of themselves constitute a 
formidable force in order to repel attacks from abroad. We can not 
be blind to the fact that other nations have already added large num- 
bers of steamships to their naval armaments and that this new and 
powerful agent is destined to revolutionize the condition of the world. 
It becomes the United States, therefore, looking to their security, to 
adopt a similar policy, and the plan suggested will enable them to do 
so at a small comparative cost. 



I transmit (December lo, 1844) copies of dispatches received from 
our minister at Mexico since the commencement of your present 
session, which claim from their importance, and I doubt not will re- 
ceive, your calm and deliberate consideration. The extraordinary and 
highly offensive language which the Mexican Government has thought 
proper to employ in reply to the remonstrance of the Executive, 
through Mr. Shannon, against the renewal of the war with Texas 
while the question 'of annexation was pending before Congress and 



278 History of the United States. 

the people, and also the proposed manner of conducting that war, will 
not fail to arrest your attention. Such remonstrance, urged in no 
unfriendly spirit to Mexico, was called for by considerations of an 
imperative character, having relation as well to the peace of this 
country and honor of this Government as to the cause of humanity 
and civilization.- Texas had entered into the treaty of annexation 
upon the invitation of the Executive, and when for that act she- was 
threatened with a renewal of the war on the part of Mexico she 
naturally looked to this Government to interpose its efforts to ward 
oft' the threatened blow. But one course was left the Executive, 
acting within the limits of its constitutional competency, and that was 
to protest in respectful, but at the same time strong and decided, 
terms against it. The war thus threatened to be renewed was pro- 
mulgated by edicts and decrees, which ordered on the part of the 
IVIexican military the desolation of whole tracts of country and the 
destruction without discrimination of all ages, sexes, and conditions 
of existence. Over the manner of conducting war Mexico possesses 
no exclusive control. She has no right to violate at pleasure the 
principles which an enlightened civilization has laid down for the con- 
duct of nations at war, and thereby retrograde to a period of barbarism, 
which happily for the world has long since passed away. All 
nations are interested in enforcing an observance of those principles, 
and the United States, the oldest of the American Republics and 
the nearest of the civilized powers to the theater on which these 
enormities were proposed to be enacted, could not cjuietly content 
themselves to witness such a state of things. They had through the 
Executive on another occasion, and, as was believed, with the appro- 
bation of the whole country, remonstrated against outrages similar 
but even less inhuman than those which by her new edicts and decrees 
she has threatened to perpetrate, and of which the late inhuman 
massacre at Tabasco was but the precursor. 

The Executive, with the evidence of an intention on the part of 
Mexico to renew scenes so revolting to humanity, could do no less 
than renew remonstrances formerly urged. For fulfilling duties so 
imperative Mexico has thought proper, through her accredited organs, 
because she has had represented to her the inhumanity of such pro- 
ceedings, to indulge in language unknown to the courtesy of diplo- 
matic intercourse and offensive in the highest degree to this Govern- 
ment and people. Nor has she offended in this only. She has not 
only violated existing conventions between the two countries by 



John Tyler. 279 

arbitrary and unjust decrees against our trade and intercourse, but 
withholds installments of debt due to our citizens which she solemnly 
pledged herself to pay under circumstances which are fully explained 
by the accompanying letter from Mr. Green, our secretary of legation. 
And when our minister has invited the attention of her Government 
to wrongs committed by her local authorities, not only on the property 
but on the persons of our fellow-citizens engaged in prosecuting fair 
and honest pursuits, she has added insult to injury by not even deign- 
ing for months together to return an answer to his representations. 
Still further to manifest her unfriendly feelings toward the United 
States, she has issued decrees expelling from some of her Provinces 
American citizens engaged in the peaceful pursuits of life, and now 
denies to those of our citizens prosecuting the whale fishery on the 
northwest coast of the Pacific the privilege, which has through all time 
heretofore been accorded to them, of exchanging goods of a small 
amount in value at her ports in California for supplies indispensable 
to their health and comfort. 

The subject of annexation (of Texas) addresses itself, most fortu- 
nately, to every portion of the Union. The Executive would have been 
unmindful of its highest ol:)ligations if it could have adopted a course 
of policy dictated by sectional interests and local feelings. On the con- 
trary, it was because the question was neither local nor sectional, but 
made its appeal to the interests of the whole Union, and of every State 
in the Union, that the negotiation, and finally the treaty of annexation, 
was entered into; and it has afforded me no ordinary pleasure to per- 
ceive that so far as demonstrations have been made upon it by the 
people they have proceeded from all portions of the Union. Mexico 
may seek to excite divisions amongst us by uttering unjust denuncia- 
tions against particular States, but when she comes to know that the 
invitations addressed to our fellow-citizens by Spain, and afterward 
by herself, to settle Texas were accepted by emigrants from all the 
States, and when, in addition to this, she refreshes her recollection with 
the fact that the first effort which was made to acquire Texas was dur- 
ing the Administration of a distinguished citizen from an Eastern 
State, which was afterward renewed under the auspices of a Presi- 
dent from the Southwest, she will awake to a knowledge of the futility 
ot her present purpose of sowing dissensions among us or producing 
distraction in our councils by attacks either on particular States or on 
persons who are now in the retirement of private life. 



28o History of the United States. 

A course of conduct such as lias been described on the part of 
Mexico, in violation of all friendly feeling and of the courtesy which 
should characterize the intercourse between the nations of the earth, 
might well justify the United States in a resort to any measures to 
vindicate their national honor ; but, actuated by a sincere desire to pre- 
serve the general peace, and in view of the present condition of Mexico, 
the Executive, resting upon its integrity, and not fearing but that the 
judgment of the world will duly appreciate its motives, abstains from 
recommending to Congress a resort to measures of redress and con- 
tents itself wdth reurging upon that body prompt and immediate ac- 
tion on the subject of annexation. By adopting that measure the 
United States will be in the exercise of an imdoubted right; and 
if Mexico, not regarding their forbearance, shall aggravate the in- 
justice of her conduct by a declaration of war against them, upon her 
head will rest all the responsibility. 



I communicate an abstract (January 22, 1845) of the treaty between 
the United States of America and the Chinese Empire concluded at 
Wang-Hiya on the 3d of July last, and ratified by the Senate on the 
1 6th instant, and which, having also been ratified by the Emperor of 
China, now aw'aits only the exchange of the ratifications in China, 
from which it will be seen that the special mission authorized by 
Congress for this purpose has fully succeeded in the accomplishment 
so far of the great objects for wdiich it was appointed, and in placing 
our relations with China on a new footing eminently favorable to the 
commerce and other interests of the United States. 

In view of the magnitude and importance of our national concerns, 
actual and prospective, in China, I submit to Congress the expediency 
of providing for the preservation and cultivation of the subsisting 
relations of amity between the United States and the Chinese Govern- 
ment, either by means of a permanent minister or commissioner with 
diplomatic functions, as in the case of certain of the Mohammedan 
States. It appears by one of the extracts annexed that the establish- 
ment of the British Government in China consists both of a pleni- 
potentiary and also of paid consuls for all the five ports, one of whom 
has the title and exercises the functions of consul-general; and France 
has also a salaried consul-general, and the interests of the United 



TROUBLED TREASURES 




CARTOON ON TROUBLED TREASURES. 




CARTOON ON THE TIMES. 



John Tyler. 283 

States seem in like manner to call for some representative in China 
of a higher class than an ordinary commercial consulate. 

I also submit to Congress the expediency of mailing some special 
provision by law for the security of the independent and honorable 
position which the treaty of Wang-Hiya confers on citizens of the 
United States residing or doing business in China. By the twenty- 
first and twenty-fifth articles of the treaty, copies of which are sub- 
joined in extenso, citizens of the United States in China are wholly 
exempted, as well in criminal as in civil matters, from the local juris- 
diction of the Chinese Government and made amenable to the laws 
and subject to the jurisdiction of the appropriate authorities of the 
United States alone. Some action on the part of Congress seems de- 
sirable in order to give full effect to these important concessions of the 
Chinese Government. 



LIFE OF JOHN TYLER. 

JOHN TYLER was born at Greenway, Va., March 29, 1790. 
He was son of Judge John Tyler, governor of Virginia, from 
1808 to 181 1, and Mary Armistead. In 1807 he graduated at 
William and Mary College. He was fond of literature and poetry, 
and was a skilled performer on the violin. He was admitted to the 
bar in 1809, and had gained quite a practice when elected to the 
legislature in December, 181 1. He staunchly supported President 
Madison's Administration, and the war with Great Britain which 
followed brought him out conspicuously as an orator. He married 
Letitia, daughter of Robert Christian, March 29, 1813. and shortly 
after led a company of militia to the defense of Richmond, which 
was threatened by the English. This service engaged him but a 
month. He was yearly re-elected to the legislature until November, 
1816, when he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the United States House 
of Representatives. He was re-elected to Congress until 1821, when 
he retired on account of his health. In 1825 an attempt was made 
to remove William and Mary College to Richmond, which Mr. Tyler 
opposed, and he was successively rector and chancellor of the college 
which prospered greatly under his management. In February, 1830, 
he returned to the United States Senate, and supported Jackson in the 
Presidential election of 1832, but on the question of removing the 
deposits from the United States Bank, broke with the Administration. 



284 History of the United States. 

The State-rights Whigs ran him for Vice-President in 1835, and at the 
election November, 1836, he received 47 electoral votes, but no candi- 
date having a majority of electoral votes, the Senate elected Richard 
M. Johnson, of Kentucky. November 10, 1840, he was elected \'ice- 
President on the ticket with William Henry Harrison and by the 
death of the latter, April 4, 1841, became President. He was nomi- 
nated for re-election. May 27, 1844, but declined to run. His first 
wife having died September 9, 1842, Mr. Tyler married Miss Julia 
Gardiner of New York, June 26, 1844. He resided on his estate. 
Sherwood Forest, near Greenway, Va., on the banks of the James 
River, and died at Richmond, January 18, 1862, and was buried, in 
Hollywood Cemetery, in that city. 



James K. Polk. 



285 







HOME OF JAMES K. POLK, AT NASHVILLE, TENN. 



CHAPTER XI 



WHAT PRESIDENT POLK WILL BE REMEMBERED FOR. 



By Senator Marion Butler. 



JAMES K. POLK will be remembered for the war that he did not fight as 
much as for the war he made against Mexico. 
The prominent issues presented in the famous Presidential campaign be- 
tween Polk and Clay were the Texas and Oregon questions. Clay, who had 
always been a compromise man, occupied a compromise position in the 
campaign. He was in favor of the acquisition of Texas, provided it could be 
done without a war with Mexico, but probably a majority of his party did not 



286 History of the United States. 

go even that far. On the other hand Polk was strongly in favor of the imme- 
diate annexation of Texas and of the acquisition of the whole of Oregon up to 
54" 40" north latitude, and was in favor of war in both cases, if necessary to 
accomplish these results. It will be remembered that one of the campaign 
slogans was " Fifty-four Forty or Fight." The result of such a campaign was 
170 electoral votes for Polk and only 105 for Clay. 

Polk in his inaugural address commended the late action of Congress in 
relation to Texas, providing for the introduction of the Republic into the 
Federal Union as a separate State, and strongly asserted the title of the United 
States to the whole of Oregon, regardless of the claim of Great Britain, and 
intimated his intention to maintain it by force if necessary. Texas was 
promptly admitted into the Union, which resulted in the breaking ofif of 
diplomatic negotiations between this Republic and the Republic of Mexico. 
Mexico having never recognized the independence of Texas, and still claiming 
that territory as belonging to her dominion. The Mexican War followed, 
which was prosecuted not only to defend and maintain the status of Texas, 
but even to a war of conquest. The war was pushed until the flag of the 
United States floated over the Mexican capital, and the immense territory from 
New Mexico to Oregon west of the Mississippi river, excluding the Louisiana 
purchase acquired by Jefferson, was taken as a war indemnity by the peace of 
Guadaloupe Hidalgo. Next to the acquisition of the Louisiana territory this 
was the most important acquisition of territory that our government has ever 
made. 

Thus while Polk, as a result of the war, was acquiring most valuable and 
important territory in the South and Southwest, and in this respect going even 
further than his campaign promises and pledges, yet he was pursuing an 
entirely different, just the opposite course in fact, with reference to the other 
important question of the memorable campaign which won him the Presidency, 
with reference to Oregon and the Northwest. There was nothing further 
heard of " fifty-four forty or fight, regardless of the claims of England "' 
President Polk unfortunately surrendered and compromised away the rights 
and contention of the United States, where the people had declared they were 
clear and indisputable. All of Oregon north of the forty-ninth degree of north 
latitude was quietly and peaceably surrendered, thus surrendering a great 
territory rich in minerals and agricultural resources, and very important to the 
welfare and defense of the United States in many ways. It was a territory out 
of which could have been carved a number of States as large as Washington 
pikI equally a? rich and valuable. Besides, it wou'd have saved the island of 
Vancouver and adiarcnt waters with their stragetic military and commercial 
advantages, within our borders. 



James K. PolK. 287 

if the public had not had its attention so sliarpl}^ drawn to the great 
acquisitions in the South and Southwest, as a resuU of the Mexican war, Poik 
and his administration would have met overwhelming condemnation for the 
surrender of the Northwest. 

So President Polk will be remembered not only for the war that he did fight 
and the great and valuable territory acquired as the result of it, but will each 
year, as time goes on, be remembered more and more for the war that he 
did not fight and the territory he did not acquire, or rather fight to hold. 

Even at the time of the Mexican War there was a strong sentiment in the 
country against the acquisition of territory by conquest, though the same 
sentiment w'ould have indorsed the Administration in fighting to maintain our 
rights in the territory of Oregon. In 1845 a meeting of the citizens of New 
York city declared that a war for conquest against Mexico would be an unjust 
war, and a war in which the nation would be sustained by no sense of right, 
but condemned by the unanimous voice of the civilization of the Christian 
world." That the cost in American blood was fearful, was instanced by the 
fact that at the roll-call of one company of 100 men who had started in at 
the beginning, but one man answered the roll-call at the fall of the Mexican 
capitol. The rest had perished by bullets and disease. In the ardor of the 
moment and when flushed with victory we are prone to confuse might with 
right. It is not a pleasant duty, no matter how great the provocation, to 
prostrate a sister Republic in the dust. A conflict of arms does not determine 
the justice of a cause. It only determines the relative strength of the con- 
testants. Napoleon said that Providence was on the side of the heavy artillery. 
Neither Mr. Polk nor Mr. Lincoln would wish to be handed down in history 
in the same class as the Corsican God of War. 

Even at this day it is hard to tell whether or not future generations will fully 
justify Mr. Polk as a man who did the true, wise, and great thing in perpe- 
trating the war with Mexico and afterward pushed it to a war of conquest. 
At the same time it seems clear that future generations will blame Mr. Polk 
more and more for his needless surrender of the Oregon territory between the 
forty-ninth degree and fifty-four forty. To-day we look at the great territory 
which he acquired in the United States in the South and Southwest, and point 
with pride to the development and progress which it has made as compared 
with that territory which is now under Mexican rule. Possibly it would have 
remained always under Mexican rule had not the War of 1846 with Mexico have 
brought it immediately under the dominion of the United States, but if we are 
to judge of that territory by the case of Texas the chances are that this 
territory would have fought for its independence as Texas did and then asked 
for admission into the Union. At the same time we will each year look with 



288 History of the United States. 

regret at the great and important territory in the northwest, that it is not 
carved into States and advancing with the same progress and development 
under the stars and stripes as California. 

Polk will also be remembered as a Jeffersonian Democrat. In his mode of 
life he was plain; in his dealings and speech, straightforward and honest. In 
his convictions he was strong and preferred rather to stand for the right as he 
saw it than to curry popular favor as a trimmer. He stood for a strict con- 
struction of the Constitution and held that great compact in the utmost 
reverence. He was a friend and follower of Jackson, and his career resembles 
that of the great Democrat in many ways. An honest man and of humble 
parentage, he arose from obscurity to the highest station in the gift of the 
American people. Like Jackson he stood unalterably opposed to the National 
Bank which monopolists of his day were trying to fasten on the American 
people. As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the House, and 
later as Speaker of the same body, and as Governor of the State of Tennessee, 
his course calls for little adverse comment, and for general commendation. 

However historians and posterity may dififer about his course as President 
with reference to the two great questions before him for solution, yet no ma;i 
will question that Polk believed he was right in the course that he pursued, 
but ever and anon the immortal words of the great Kentuckian, whom Polk 
defeated for the Presidency, will recur to the impartial student of history: 
" I would rather be right than be President." 



James K. Polk. 289 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1845-1849. 



By James K. Polk. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1845. 

WITHOUT solicitation on my part, I have been chosen by the 
free and voluntary suffrages of my countrymen to the 
most honorable and most responsible office on earth. I 
am deeply impressed with gratitude for the confidence reposed in me. 
Honored with this distinguished consideration at an earlier period of 
life than any of my predecessors, I can not disguise the diffidence with 
which I am about to enter on the discharge of my official duties. 

The Constitution itself, plainly written as it is, the safeguard of our 
federative compact, the offspring of concession and compromise, bind- 
ing together in the bonds of peace and union this great and increasing 
family of free and independent States, will be the chart by which 1 
shall be directed. 



Andrew Jackson is no more. He departed this life on Sunday, the 
8th of June, 1845, f'-^Il of days and full of honors. His country 
deplores his loss, and will ever cherish his memory. Whilst a nation 
mourns it is proper that business should be suspended, at least for 
one day, in the Executive Departments, as a tribute of respect to the 
illustrious dead. 

I accordingly direct that the Departments of State, the Treasury, 
W'ar, the Navy, the Post-Office, the office of the Attorney-General, 
and the Executive Mansion be instantly put into mourning, and that 
they be closed during the whole day to-morrow (June 16, 1845). 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 2, 1845. 

In pursuance of the joint resolution of Congress " for annexing 
Texas to the United States," my predecessor, on the 3d day of March, 
1S45, elected to subn:it the first and second sections of that resolution 



290 History of the United States. 

to the Republic of Texas as an overture on the part ot the United 
States for her admission as a State into our Union. This election I 
approved, and accordingly the charge d'affaires of the United States 
in Texas, under instructions of the loth of March, 1845, presented 
these sections of the resolution for the acceptance of that Republic. 
The executive government, the Congress, and the people of Texas 
in convention have successively complied with all the terms and con- 
ditions of the joint resolution. A constitution for the government 
of the State of Texas, formed by a convention of deputies, is herewith 
laid before Congress. It is well known, also, that the people of Texas 
at the polls have accepted the terms of annexation and ratified the 
Constitution. 

The terms of annexation which were offered by the United States 
having been accepted by Texas, the public faith of both parties is 
solemnly pledged to the compact of their union. Nothing remains 
to consummate the event but the passage of an act by Congress to 
admit the State of Texas into the Union upon an equal footing with 
the original States. Strong reasons exist why this should be done at 
an early period of the session. 

I regret to inform you that our relations with Mexico since your 
last session have not been of the amicable character which it is our 
desire to cultivate with all foreign nations. On the 6th day of 
March last the Mexican envoy extraordinary and minister pleni- 
potentiary to the United States made a formal protest in the name 
of his Government against the joint resolution passed by Congress 
" for the annexation of Texas to the United States," which he chose 
to regard as a violation of the rights of Mexico, and in consequence 
of it he demanded his passports. He was informed that the Govern- 
ment of the United States did not consider this joint resolution as a 
violation of any of the rights of Mexico, or that it afforded any just 
cause of offense to his Government; that the Republic of Texas was 
an independent power, owing no allegiance to Mexico and constitut- 
ing no part of her territory or rightful sovereignty and jurisdiction. 
He w'as also assured that it was the sincere desire of this Govern- 
ment to maintain with that of Mexico relations of peace and good 
understanding. That functionary, however, notwithstanding these 
representations and assurances, abruptly terminated his mission and 
shortly afterward left the country. Our envoy extraordinary and 
nnnister plenipotentiary to Mexico was refused all official intercourse 
with that Government, and, after remaining several months, by the 



James K. Polk. 291 

permission of his own Government he retnrned to the United States. 
Thus, by the acts of Mexico, all diplomatic intercourse between the 
two countries was suspended. 

Since that time Mexico has until recently occupied an attitude of 
hostility toward the United States — has been marshalling and organ- 
izing armies, issuing proclamations, and avowing the intention to 
make war on the United States, either by an open declaration or by 
invading Texas. Both the Congress and convention of the people of 
Texas invited this Government to send an army into that territory to 
protect and defend them against the menaced attack. The moment 
the terms of annexation offered by the United States were accepted 
by Texas the latter became so far a part of our own country as to 
make it our duty to afford such protection and defense. I, therefore, 
deemed it proper, as a precautionary meastire, to order a strong 
squadron to the coasts of Mexico and to concentrate an efificient 
military force on the western frontier of Texas. Our Army was 
ordered to take position in the country between the Nueces and the 
Del Norte, and to repel any invasion of the Texan territory which 
might be attempted by the Mexican forces. Our squadron in the 
Gulf was ordered to co-operate with the Army. But though our Army 
and Navy were placed in a position to defend our own and the rights 
of Texas, they were ordered to commit no act of hostility against 
Mexico unless she declared war or was herself the aggressor by 
striking the first blow. 

Though entertaining the settled conviction that the British pre- 
tensions of title could not be maintained to any portion of the Oregon 
Territory upon any principle of public law recognized by nations, yet 
in deference to what had been done by my predecessors, and especially 
in consideration that propositions of compromise had been thrice made 
by two preceding Administrations to adjust the question on the 
parallel of 49°, and in two of them yielding to Great Britain the free 
navigation of the Columbia, and that the pending negotiation had been 
commenced on the basis of compromise, I deemed it to be mv duty 
not abruptly to break it off. In consideration, too, that under the 
conventions of 1818 and 1827 the citizens and subjects of the two 
powers held a joint occupancy of the country, I was induced to make 
another effort to settle this long-pending controversy in the spirit of 
moderation which had given birth to the renewed discussion. A propo- 
sition was accordingly made, which was rejected by the British 
plenipotentiary, who, without submitting any other proposition, suf- 



292 History of the United States. 

fered the negotiation on his part to drop, expressing his trust that the 
United States would ofifer what he saw fit to call " some further pro- 
posal for the settlement of the Oregon question more consistent witii 
fairness and equity and with the reasonable expectations of the British 
Government." The proposition thus offered and rejected repeated 
the ofifer of the parallel of 49° of north latitude, which had been made 
by two preceding Administrations, but without proposing to sur- 
render to Great Britain, as they had done, the free navigation of the 
Columbia River. The right of any foreign power to the free naviga- 
tion of any of our rivers through the heart of our country was one 
wliich I was unwilling to concede. It also embraced a provision to 
make free to Great Britain any port or ports on the cap of Quadra 
and Vancouvers Island south of this parallel. Had this been a new 
question, coming under discussion for the first time, this proposition 
would not have been made. The extraordinary and wholly inad- 
missible demands of the British Government and the rejection of the 
proposition made in deference alone to what had been done by my 
predecessors and the implied obligation which their acts seemed to 
impose afford satisfactory evidence that no compromise which the 
United States ought to accept can be effected. With this conviction 
the proposition of compromise which had been made and rejected was 
by my direction subsequently withdrawn and our title to the whole 
Oregon Territory asserted, and, as is believed, maintained by irre- 
fragable facts and arguments. 

All attempts at compromise having failed, it becomes the duty of 
Congress to consider what measures it may be proper to adopt for the 
security and protection of our citizens now inhabiting or who may 
hereafter inhabit Oregon, and for the maintenance of our just title to 
that Territory. In adopting measures for this puri)ose care should be 
taken that nothing be done to violate the stipulations of the convention 
of 1827, which is still in force. 

For the protection of emigrants whilst on their way to Oregon 
against the attacks of the Indian tribes occupying the country through 
which they pass, I recommend that a suitable number of stockades 
and blockhouse forts be erected along the usual route between our 
frontier settlements on the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, and 
that an adequate force of mounted riflemen be raised to guard and 
protect them on their journey. The immediate adoption of these 
recommendations by Congress will not violate the provisions of the 
existing treaty. It will be doing nothing more for American citizens 



James K. Polk. 293 

than British laws have long since done for British subjects in the same 
territory. 

It requires several months to perform the voyage by sea from the 
Atlantic States to Oregon, and although we have a large number of 
whaleships in the Pacific, but few of them afTord an opportunity of 
interchanging intelligence without great delay between our settle- 
ments in that distant region and the United States. An overland mail 
is believed to be entirely practicable, and the importance of estab- 
lishing such a mail at least once a month is submitted to Congress. 



In accordance with the resolution (June 16, 1846) of the Senate of 
the 1 2th instant, that " the President of the United States be, and he 
is hereby, advised to accept the proposal of the British Government 
accompanying his message to the Senate dated loth June, 1846, for a 
convention to settle boundaries, etc., between the United States and 
Great Britain west of the Rocky or Stony Mountains," a convention 
was concluded and signed on the 15th instant by the Secretary of 
State, on the part of the United States, and the envoy extraordinary 
and minister plenipotentiary of Her Britannic Majesty, on the part of 
Great Britain. 

This convention I now lay before the Senate, with a view to its 
ratification. 

Entertaining the opinion that " the separation of the moneys of the 
Government from banking institutions is indispensable for the safety 
of the funds of the Government and the rights of the people," I recom- 
mend to Congress that provision be made by law for such separation, 
and that a constitutional treasury be created for the safe-keeping of 
the public money. The constitutional treasury recommended is de- 
signed as a secure depository for the public money, without any 
power to make loans or discounts or to issue any paper whatever as a 
currency or circulation. I can not doubt that such a treasury as was 
contemplated by the Constitution should be independent of all bank- 
ing corporations. The money of the people should be kept in the 
Treasury of the people created by law, and be in the custody of agents 
of the people chosen by themselves according to the forms cf the 
Constitution. 

Texas, by the final action of our Congress (December 31, 1845), 
had become an integral part of our Union. The Congress of Texas- 



^94 History of the United States. 

by its act of December 19, 1836, had declared the Rio del Norte to be 
the boundary of that Republic. Its jurisdiction had been extended 
and exercised beyond the Nueces. The country between that river 
and the Del Norte had been represented in the Congress and in the 
convention of Texas, had thus taken part in the act of annexation 
itself, and is now included within one of our Congressional districts. 

The movement of the troops to the Del Norte was made by the 
commanding general under positive instructions to abstain from all 
aggressive acts toward Mexico or Mexican citizens and to regard the 
relations between that Republic and the United States as peaceful 
unless she should declare war or commit acts of hostility indicative of 
a state of war. He was specially directed to protect private property 
and respect personal rights. 

The Army moved from Corpus Christi on the nth of March, 1846, 
and on the 28th of that month arrived on the left bank of the Del 
Norte opposite to Matamoras, where it encamped on a commanding 
position, which has since been strengthened by the erection of field- 
works. A depot has also been established at Point Isabel, near the 
Brazos Santiago, thirty miles in rear of the encampment. The selec- 
tion of his position was necessarily confided to the judgment of the 
general in command. 

The Mexican forces at Matamoras assumed a belligerent attitude, 
and on the 12th of April, 1846, General Ampudia, then in command, 
notified General Taylor to break up his camp witiiin twenty-four 
hours and to retire beyond the Nueces River, and in the event of his 
failure to comply with these demands announced that arms, and arms 
alone, must decide the question. But no open act of hostility was 
committed until the 24th of April. On that day General Arista, who 
had succeeded to the command of the Mexican forces, communicated 
to General Taylor that " he considered hostilities commenced and 
should prosecute them." A party of dragoons of sixty-three men 
and officers were on the same day dispatched from the American camp 
up the Rio del Norte, on its left bank, to ascertain whether the Mexi- 
can troops had crossed or were preparing to cross the river, " became 
engaged with a large body of these troops, and after a short afTair, in 
which some sixteen were killed and wounded, appear to have been 
surrounded and compelled to surrender." 

In further vindication of our rights and defense of our territory, I 
invoke the prompt action of Congress to recognize the existence of 
the war, and to place at the disposition of the Executive the means 



James K. Polk. 295 

of prosecuting the war with vigor, and thus hastening the restoration 
of peace. 



Whereas the Congress (May 13, 1846) of the United States, by 
virtue of the constitutional authority vested in them, have declared by 
their act bearing date this day that " by the act of the Republic of 
Mexico a state of war exists between that Government and the United 
States: " 

Now, therefore, I, James K. Polk, President of the United States of 
America, do hereby proclaim the same to all whom it may concern; 
and I do specially enjoin on all persons holding offices, civil or mili- 
tary, under the authority of the United States that they be vigilant and 
zealous in discharging the duties respectively incident thereto; and I 
do, moreover, exhort all the good people of the United States, as they 
love their country, as they feel the wrongs which have forced on them 
the last resort of injured nations, and as they consult the best means, 
under the blessing of Divine Providence, of abridging its calamities, 
thaL they exert themselves in preserving order, in promoting concord, 
in maintaining the authority and the efficacy of the laws, and in sup- 
porting and invigorating all the meastires which may be adopted by 
the constituted authorities for obtaining a speedy, a just, and an 
honorable peace. 

Upon the commencement of hostilities by Mexico against the 
United States the indignant spirit of the nation was at once aroused. 
Congress promptly responded to the expectations of the country, and 
by the act of the 13th of May, 1846, recognized the fact that war ex- 
isted, by the act of Mexico, between the United States and that Repub- 
lic, and granted the means necessary for its vigorous prosecution. 
Being involved in a war thus commenced by Mexico, and for the 
justice of which on our part we may confidently appeal to the whole 
world, I resolved to prosecute it with the utmost vigor. Accordingly 
the ports of Mexico on the Gulf and on the Pacific have been placed 
under blockade and her territory invaded at several important points. 
The reports from the Departments of War and of the Navy will 
inform you more in detail of the measures adopted in the emergency 
in which our country was placed and of the gratifying results which 
have been accomplished. 

The various columns of the Army have performed their duty under 
great disadvantages with the most distinguished skill and courage. 



296 History of the United States. 

The victories of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma and of Monterey, 
won against greatly superior numbers and against most decided ad- 
vantages in other respects on the part of the enemy, were brilliant in 
their execution, and entitle our brave officers and soldiers to the 
grateful thanks of their country. The nation deplores the loss of the 
brave officers and men who have gallantly fallen while vindicating and 
defending their country's rights and honor. 

It is a subject of pride and satisfaction that our volunteer citizen 
soldiers, who so promptly responded to their country's call, with an 
experience of the discipline of a camp of only a few weeks, have borne 
their part in the hard-fought battle of Monterey with a constancy and 
courage equal to that of veteran troops and worthy of the highest 
admiration. The privations of long marches through the enemy's 
country and through a wilderness have been borne without a murmur. 
By rapid movements the Province of New Mexico, with Santa Fe, its 
capital, has been captured without bloodshed. Tlie Navy has co- 
operated with the Army and rendered important services; if not so 
brilliant, it is because the enemy had no force to meet them on their 
own element and because of the defenses which nature has interposed 
in the difficulties of the navigation on the Mexican coast. Our 
squadron in the Pacific, with the co-operation of a gallant officer of the 
Army and a small force hastily collected in that distant country, has 
acquired bloodless possession of the Californias, and the American 
flag has been raised at every important point in that Province. 



I communicate herewith a letter received from the president (Janu- 
ary 20, 1847) of the convention of delegates of the people of Wis- 
consin, transmitting a certified copy of the Constitution adopted by 
the delegates of the people of Wisconsin in convention assembled, also 
a copy of the act of the legislature of the Territory of Wisconsin pro- 
viding for the calling of said convention, and also a copy of the last 
census, showing the number of inhabitants in said Territory, request- 
ing the President to " lay the same before the Congress of the United 
States with the request that Congress act upon the same at its present 
session." 



I transmit to the Senate (February 10, 1847), ^ov their advice with 
regard to its ratification, " a general treaty of peace, amity, navigation, 



James K. Polk, 297 

and commerce between the United States of America and the Republic 
of New Gi'^nada," conckided at Bogota on the 12th December last 
by Benjamin A. Bidlack, charge d'affaires of the United States, on 
their part, and by Manuel Maria Mallarino, Secretary of State and 
Foreign Relations, on the part of that Republic. 

It will be perceived by the thirty-fifth article of this treaty that New 
Granada proposes to guarantee to the Government and citizens of the 
United States the right of passage across the Isthmus of Panama over 
the natural roads and over any canal or railroad which may be con- 
structed to unite the two seas, on condition that the United States 
shall make a similar guaranty to New Granada of the neutrality of 
this portion of her territory and her sovereignty over the same. 

The reasons which caused the insertion of this important stipulation 
in the treaty will be fully made known to the Senate by the accom- 
panying documents. From these it will appear that our charge 
d'affaires acted in this particular upon his own responsibility and 
without instructions. Under such circumstances it became my duty 
to decide whether I would submit the treaty to the Senate, and after 
mature consideration I have determined to adopt this course. 

The importance of this concession to the commercial and political 
interests of the United States can not easily be overrated. The route 
by the Isthmus of Panama is the shortest between the two oceans, and 
from the information herewith communicated it would seem to be the 
most practicable for a railroad or canal. 

The vast advantages to our commerce which would result from 
such a communication, not only with the west coast of America, but 
with Asia and the islands of the Pacific, are too obvious to require any 
detail. Such a passage would relieve us from a long and dangerous 
navigation of more than 9,000 miles around Cape Horn and render 
our communication with our possessions on the northwest coast of 
America comparatively easy and speedy. 



I communicate to Congress (April 3, 1848) a copy of a dispatch, 
with the accompanying documents, received at the Department of 
State from the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of 
the United States at Paris, giving official information of the overthrow 
of the French Monarchy, and the establishment in its stead of a " pro- 
visional government based on republican principles." 



298 HiSTOKY OF THE UnITED StATES. 

Tliis great event occurred suddenly, and was accomplished almost 
without bloodshed. The world has seldom witnessed a more interest- 
ing or sublime spectacle than the peaceful rising of the French people, 
resolved to secure for themselves enlarged liberty, and to assert, in 
the majesty of their strength, the great truth that in this enlightened 
age man is capable of governing himself. 

The prompt recognition of the new Government by the repre- 
sentative of the United States at the French Court meets my full and 
unqualified approbation, and he has been authorized in a suitable man- 
ner to make known this fact to the constituted authorities of the 
French Republic. 



Whereas a treaty (July 4, 1848) of peace, friendship, limits, and 
settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican 
Republic was concluded and signed at the city of Guadalupe Hidalgo 
on the 2d day of February, 1848. 

And whereas the said treaty, as amended, has been duly ratified on 
both parts, and the respective ratifications of the same were exchanged 
at Queretaro on the 30th day of May last by Ambrose H. Sevier and 
Nathan Clifford, commissioners on the part of the Government of the 
United States, and by Senor Don Luis de la Rosa, minister of relations 
of the Mexican Republic, on the part of that Government: 

Now, therefore, be it known that I, James K. Polk, President of the 
United States of America, have caused the said treaty to be made 
public, to the end that the same and every clause and article thereof 
may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States 
and the citizens thereof. 

It has pleased Divine Providence (February 24, 1848), to call hence 
a great and patriotic citizen. John Quincy Adams is no more. At 
the advanced age of more than fourscore years, he was suddenly 
stricken from his seat in the House of Representatives by the hand of 
disease on the 21st, and expired in the Capitol a few minutes after 7 
o'clock on the evening of the 23d of February, 1848. 

He had for more than half a century filled the most important 
public stations, and among them that of President of the United 
States. 

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 5, 1848. 

Within less than four years the annexation of Texas to the Union 
has been consummated; all conflicting title to the Oregon Territory 




ELEVENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 









^,y ^/,j I'^i i/</, ,A .'>! i' >' iitc<ZA^-r'c/^ f-.i^^ l-ri. f%«>»i^ ^La^ 

(!/6w <Vtx^_ £AtA^ /t^T^-l^i<^ ; ii. f ^A-e^/ /i^<-f. <^/t^ c-t^r^fTii^f CfAi^ 

'/ ■ ■ X ■ ^ ^ / ■ y ' 

a,^<^ ,!^<5& J^^)(.yt.e^t^j!^.L,ej^ ,^^(^ ^Sj-.*^5> «^2ar 



/ 







DECl-ARATluN uF WAR AGAINST MEXiC() BY PRESIDF-.NT 

POLK. 



James K. Polk. 301 

south of tlie forty-ninth degree of north latitude, being all that was 
insisted on by any of my predecessors, has been adjusted, and New 
Mexico and Upper California have been acquired by treaty. The area 
of these several Territories, according to a report carefully prepared 
by the Commissioner of the General Land Office from the most 
authentic information in his possession, and which is herewith trans- 
mitted, contains 1,193,061 square miles, or 763,559,040 acres; while 
the area of the remaining twenty-nine States and the territory not yet 
organized into States east of the Rocky Mountains contains 2,059,513 
square miles, or 1,318,126,058 acres. These estimates show that the 
territories recently acquired, and over which our exclusive jvirisdiction 
and dominion have been extended, constitute a country more than 
half as large as all that which was held by the United States before 
their acquisition. If Oregon be excluded from the estimate, there will 
still remain within the limits of Texas, New Mexico, and California 
851,598 square miles, or 545,012,720 acres, being an addition equal to 
more than one-third of all the territory owned by the United States 
before their acquisition, and, including Oregon, nearly as great an 
extent of territory as the whole of Europe, Russia only excepted. 
The Mississippi, so lately the frontier of our country, is now only its 
center. With the addition of the late acquisitions, the United States 
are now estimated to be nearly as large as the whole of Europe. It is 
estimated by the Superintendent of the Coast Survey in the accom- 
panying report that the extent of the seacoast of Texas on the Gulf of 
Mexico is upward of 400 miles; of the coast of Upper California on the 
Pacific, of 970 miles, and of Oregon, including the Straits of Fuca, of 
650 miles, making the whole extent of seacoast on the Pacific 1,620 
miles and the whole extent on both the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico 
2,020 miles. The length of the coast on the Atlantic from the northern 
limits of the United States around the capes of Florida to the Sabine, 
on the eastern boundary of Texas, is estimated to be 3,100 miles; so 
that the addition of seacoast, including Oregon, is very nearly two- 
thirds as great as all we possessed before, and, excluding Oregon, is 
an addition of 1,370 miles, being nearly equal to one-half of the extent 
of coast which we possessed before these acquisitions. We have now 
three great maritime fronts — on the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and 
the Pacific — making in the whole an extent of seacoast exceeding 
5,000 miles. This is the extent of the seacoast of the United States, 
not including bays, sounds, and small irregularities of the main shore 
and of the sea islands. If these be included, the length of the shore 



302 History of the United States. 

line of coast, as estimated by the Superintendent of the Coast Survey 
in his report, would be 33,063 miles. 

New Mexico, though situated in the interior and without a sea- 
coast, is known to contain much fertile land, to abound in rich mines 
of the precious metals, and to be capable of sustaining a large popu- 
lation. From its position it is the intermediate and connecting terri- 
tory between our settlements and our possessions in Texas and those 
on the Pacific Coast. 

Upper California, irrespective of the vast mineral wealth recently 
developed there, holds at this day, in point of value and importance, 
to the rest of the Union the same relation that Louisiana did when 
that fine territory was acquired from France forty-five years ago. 
Extending nearly ten degrees of latitude along the Pacific, and em- 
1)racing the only safe and commodious harbors on that coast for many 
hundred miles, with a temperate climate and an extensive interior 
of fertile lands, it is scarcely possible to estimate its wealth until it 
shall be brought under the government of our laws and its resources 
fully developed. From its position it must command the rich com- 
merce of China, of Asia, of the islands of the Pacific, of western 
ATexico, of Central America, the South American States, and of the 
Russian possessions bordering on that ocean. A great emporium 
will doubtless speedily arise on the Californian coast which mav be des- 
tined to rival in importance New Orleans itself. The depot of the vast 
commerce which must exist on the Pacific will probably be at some 
point on the Bay of San Francisco, and will occupy the same relation 
to the whole western coast of that ocean as New Orleans does to the 
valley of the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. To this depot our 
numerous whale ships will resort with their cargoes to trade, refit, and 
obtain supplies. This of itself will largely contribute to build up a 
city, which would soon become the center of a great and rapidly in- 
creasing commerce. Situated on a safe harbor, sufificiently capacious 
for all the navies as well as the marine of the world, and convenient 
to excellent timber for shipbuilding, owned by the United States, it 
must become our great Western naval depot. 

It was known that mines of the precious metals existed to a con- 
siderable extent in California at the time of its acquisition. Recent 
discoveries render it probable that these mines are more extensive 
and valuable than was anticipated. The accounts of the abundance 
of gold in that territory are of such an extraordinary character as 
would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by the 



James K. Polk. 303 

authentic reports of officers in the pubHc service who have visited the 
nnneral district and derived the facts which they detail from personal 
observation. Reluctant to credit the reports in general circulation as 
to the ciuantity of gold, the officer commanding our forces in California 
visited the mineral district in July last for the purpose of obtaining 
accurate information on the subject. His report to the War Depart- 
ment of the result of his examination ^Ad the facts obtained on the 
spot is herewith laid before Congress. When he visited the country 
there were about 4,000 persons engaged in collecting gold. There 
is every reason to believe that the number of persons so employed has 
since been augmented. The explorations already made warrant the 
belief that the supply is very large and that gold is found at various 
places in an extensive district of country. 

Information received from officers of the Navy and other sources, 
though not so full and minute, confirms the accounts of the com- 
mander of our military force in California It appears also from 
these reports that mines of cjuicksilver are found in the vicinity of the 
gold region. One of them is now being worked, and is believed 
to be among the most productive in the world. 

The effects produced by the discovery of these rich mineral de- 
posits and the success which has attended the labors of those who 
have resorted to them have produced a surprising change in the state 
of affairs in California. Labor commands a most exorbitant price, 
and all other pursuits but that of searching for the precious metals are 
abandoned. Xearly the whole of the male population of the country 
have gone to the gold districts. Ships arriving on the coast are de- 
serted by their crews and their voyages suspended for want of sailors. 
Our commanding officer there entertains apprehensions that soldiers 
can not be kept in the public service without a large increase of pay. 
Desertions in his command have become frequent, and he recom- 
mends that those who shall withstand the strong temptation and re- 
main faithful should be rewarded. 

This abundance of gold and the all-engrossing pursuit of it have 
already caused in California an unprecedented rise in the price of all 
the necessaries of life. 

That we may the more speedily and fully avail ourselves of the un- 
developed wealth of these mines, it is deemed of vast importance 
that a branch of the ^Slint of the United States be authorized to be 
established at your present session in California. Among other signal 
advantages which would result from such an establishment would be 



304 History of the United States. 

that of raising the gold to its par vakie in that territory. A branch 
mint of the United States at the great commercial depot on the west 
coast would convert into our own coin not only the gold derived from 
our own rich mines, but also the bullion and specie which our com- 
merce may bring from the whole west coast of Central and South 
America. The west coast of America and the adjacent interior em- 
brace the richest and best mines of Mexico, New Granada, Central 
America, Chili, and Peru. The bullion and specie drawn from these 
countries, and especially from those of western Mexico and Peru, 
to an amount in value of many millions of dollars, are now annually 
diverted and carried by the ships of Great Britain to her own ports, 
to be recoined or used to sustain her national bank, and thus con- 
tribute to increase her ability to command so much of the commerce 
of the world. If a branch mint be established at the great commercial 
point upon that coast, a vast amount of bullion and specie would 
flow thither to be recoined, and pass thence to New Orleans, New 
York, and other Atlantic cities. The amount of our constitutional 
currency at home would be greafly increased, while its circulation 
abroad would be promoted. It is well known to our merchants trad- 
ing to China and the west coast of America that great inconvenience 
and loss are experienced from the fact that our coins are not current 
at their par value in those countries. 

The acquisition of California and New Mexico, the settlement of 
the Oregon boundary, and the annexation of Texas, extending to the 
Rio Grande, are results which, combined, are of greater consequence 
and will add more to the strength and wealth of the nation than any 
which have preceded them since the adoption of the Constitution. 

But to effect these great results not only California, but New 
Mexico, must be brought under the control of regularly organized 
governments. The existing condition of California and of that part 
of New Mexico lying west of the Rio Grande and without the limits 
of Texas imperiously demands that Congress should at its present 
session organize Territorial governments over them. 

The question is believed to be rather abstract than practical, 
whether slavery ever can or would exist in any portion of the acquired 
territory even if it were left to the option of the slaveholding States 
themselves. From the nature of the climate and productions in much 
the larger portion of it it is certain it could never exist, and in the 
remainder the probabilities are it would not. But however this may 
be, the question, involving, as it does, a principle of equality of rights 



James K. Polk. 305 

of the separate and several States as equal copartners in the Con- 
federacy, should not be disregarded. 

In organizing governments over these territories no duty imposed 
on Congress by the Constitution requires that they should legislate 
on the subject of slavery, v^hile their power to do so is not only 
seriously questioned, but denied by many of the soundest expounders 
of that instrument. Whether Congress shall legislate or not, the 
people of the acquired territories, when assembled in convention to 
form State constitutions, will possess the sole and exclusive power to 
determine for themselves whether slavery shall or shall not exist within 
their limits. 

It is fortunate for the peace and harmony of the Union that this 
question is in its nature temporary and can only continue for the 
brief period which will intervene before California and New Mexico 
may be admitted as States into the Union. From the tide of popula- 
tion now flowing into them it is highly probable that this will soon 
occur. 

Considering the several States and the citizens of the several 
States as equals and entitled to equal rights under the Constitution, if 
this were an original question it might well be insisted on that the 
principle of noninterference is the true doctrine and that Congress 
could not, in the absence of any express grant of power, interfere with 
their relative rights. Upon a great emergency, however, and under 
menacing dangers to the Union, the Missouri compromise line in re- 
spect to slavery was adopted. The same Hne was extended farther 
west in the acquisition of Texas. After an acquiescence of nearly 
thirty years in the principle of compromise recognized and established 
by these acts, and to avoid the danger to the Union which might fol- 
low if it were now disregarded, I have heretofore expressed the opin- 
ion that that line of compromise should be extended on the parallel of 
36° 30' from the western boundary of Texas, where it now terminates, 
to the Pacific Ocean. This is the middle ground of compromise, upon 
which the different sections of the Union may meet, as they have here- 
tofore met. If this be done, it is confidently believed a large ma- 
jority of the people of every section of the country, however widely 
their abstract opinions on the subject of slavery may differ, would 
cheerfully and patriotically acquiesce in it, and peace and harmony 
would again fill our borders. 

The restriction north of the line was only yielded to in the case of 
Missouri and Texas upon a principle of compromise, made necessary 



3o6 History of the United States. 

for the sake of preserving the harmony and possibly the existence of 
the Union. 

It was upon these considerations that at the close of your last 
session I gave my sanction to the principle of the Missouri com- 
promise line by approving and signing the bill to establish " the 
Territorial government of Oregon." From a sincere desire to pre- 
serve the harmony of the Union, and in deference for the acts of my 
predecessors, I felt constrained to yield my acquiescence to the ex- 
tent to which they had gone in compromising this delicate and 
dangerous question. But if Congress shall now reverse the decision 
by which the Missouri compromise was effected, and shall propose 
to extend the restriction over the whole territory, south as well as 
north of the parallel of 36° 30', it will cease to be a compromise, and 
nuist be regarded as an original question. 

The operations of the constitutional Treasury established by the act 
of the 6th of August, 1846, in the receipt, custody, and disbursement 
of the public money have continued to be successful. Under this 
system the public finances have been carried through a foreign war, 
involving the necessity of loans and extraordinary expenditures and 
requiring distant transfers and disbursements, without embarrassment, 
and no loss has occurred of any of the public money deposited under 
its provisions. Whilst it has proved to be safe and useful to the 
Government, its effects have been most beneficial upon the business of 
the country. It has tended powerfully to secure an exemption from 
that inflation and fluctuation of the paper currency so injurious to 
domestic industry and rendering so uncertain the rewards of labor, 
and, it is believed, has largely contributed to preserve the whole 
country from a serious commercial revidsion, such as often occurred 
under the bank deposit system. In the year 1847 there was a revulsion 
in the business of Great Britain of great extent and intensity, which 
was followed by failures in that Kingdom unprecedented in number 
and amount of losses. This is believed to be the first instance when 
such disastrous bankruptcies, occurring in a country with which we 
have such extensive commerce, produced little or no injurious effect 
upon our trade or currency. We remained but little affected in our 
money market, and our business and industry were still prosperous 
and progressive. 

The contracts for the transportation of the mail in steamships, con- 
vertible into war steamers, promise to realize all the benefits to our 
commerce and to the Navy which were anticipated. The first steamer 



James K. Polk. 307 

thus secured to the Government was launched in January, 1847. 
There are now seven, and in another year there will, probably, be not 
less than seventeen afloat. While this great national advantage is 
secured, our social and commercial intercourse is increased and pro- 
moted with Germany, Great Britain, and other parts of Europe, with 
all the countries on the west coast of our continent, especially with 
Oregon and California, and between the northern and southern sec- 
tions of the United States. Considerable revenue may be expected 
from postages, but the connected line from New York to Chagres, and 
thence across the Isthmus to Oregon, can not fail to exert a beneficial 
influence, not now to be estimated, on the interests of the manu- 
factures, commerce, navigation, and currency of the United States. 
As an important part of the system, I recommend to your favorable 
consideration the establishment of the proposed line of steamers be- 
tween New Orleans and Vera Cruz, It promises the most happy 
results in cementing friendship between the two Republics and ex- 
tending reciprocal benefits to the trade and manufactures of both. 



LIFE OF JAMES K. POLK. 

JAMES K. POLK was born November 2, 1795, in Mecklenburg 
county, N. C. His father was Samuel Polk, son of Ezekiel Polk, 
one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. His mother was Jane Knox, daughter of James Knox, a 
captain in the War of the Revolution, and a resident of North Caro- 
lina. In the fall of 1806 his father moved to the Duck River valley 
in Tennessee; he died in 1827. The young James was reared on a 
farm. He was an industrious student and entered the sophomore class 
at the University of North Carolina in 1815. He graduated in 1818 
and delivered the Latin salutatory. The University conferred upon 
him the degree of LL. D. in 1847, while studying law in the office of 
Felix Grundy, the head of the Tennessee bar in 1819. About this 
time he formed a friendship with Andrew Jackson which was never 
broken. He was admitted to the bar and began to practice in 1820. 
He married Miss Sarah Childress in 1824, and in 1825 was sent to 
Congress from the Duck River district and continued to represent 
this district until 1839 when he became governor of Tennessee. Mr. 
Polk was peculiarly gifted as a speaker and early won the name of the 



3o8 History of the United States. 

" Napoleon of the Stump." He supported the Jackson Administra- 
tion warmly and was one of its main reliances, particularly in the 
contest between President Jackson and the United States Bank, 
caused by the removal of the deposits in October, 1833. He was 
Speaker of the House from 1835 to 1839. He was also a loyal sup- 
porter of the Van Buren Administration. He was the Democratic 
nominee for President in 1844, and was elected November 12th. He 
was inaugurated March 4, 1845. ^^ refused to be a candidate for 
re-election, and retired to his home in Nashville, Tenn., where he died 
June 15, 1849. He was buried at Polk Place, in Nashville, but his 
remains were, in September, 1893, removed by the State to Capitol 
Square. 















- 




m 








MrKi 






^^H^ 1^»«% ~M 


> 






R^HBL^^ 


f 


WSSStM 




Pm.4^| 




#-■ ^.; :,'■■- ■;: ^P^ 


.^^ ;^^ 


1 #■ ^ J 1 . 




-' ' iS^HHp; :: '. '^ 




^ » 


■■"^- ' "^ 


' m 


ir 


Bw4l^^^^^l 


■'■'Sj V 




M 


H^r^HP^H 


^<^ 


-*'^> 


4:11 


1 w-^msa^^, f~^- 








fe^ 



^^^ 



TWELFTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Zachary Taylor. 



;ii 








HOME OF ZACHARY TAYLOR AT BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA. 



CHAPTER XII 



ZACHARY TAYLOR AS SOLDIER AND PRESIDENT. 



By Henry Clay Evans, Pension Commissioner. 



T^ URING Zachary Taylor's brief incumbency of the great office of Presi- 
^-^ dent, for which he never thought himself well qualified, he was a tower 
of strength to the Union and blocked all the ambitious projects of the slave 
power. In considering the admission of new States to the Union, he recom- 
mended that they be admitted on their merits, and that the question of slavery 
be left to them for settlement. This position provoked much opposition in. 
Congress and became the subject that agitated the public mind during almost 
the entire time that he was in executive control. 

Having information as to the fitting out of an armed expedition with the 
intention of evidently invading the island of Cuba, on August ll, 1849, he 



312 History of the United States. 

issued a proclamation of warning against engaging in such an enterprise so 
grossly in violation of our laws and our treaty obligations, and calling upon 
every officer of the Government, civil or military, to use all efiforts in his 
power to arrest for trial and punishment every such offender against the laws 
providing for the performance of our sacred obligations to friendly powers. 

His term of office was too short, and the questions that came before him too 
much of one general character to enable us to form an adequate opinion of his 
abilities as a civil administrator. He was open and direct in his methods; his 
state papers are models of pure and virile English, and the honesty of his 
purpose is beyond cavil. 

In the single year of his Administration he advocated some great improve- 
ments, the wisdom of which is only beginning to be fully appreciated. One of 
these measures was a canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He worked 
earnestly to secure a location for such a canal, either Nicaragua or by way of 
Tehuantepec or across the Isthmus of Panama. His views on that subject, in 
stating the objects of that treaty, are well worth quoting at the present time. 
He said: "This treaty has been negotiated in accordance with the general 
views expressed in my message to Congress in December last. Its object is 
to establish a commercial alliance with all great maritime states for the pro- 
tection of a contemplated ship canal through the territory of Nicaragua to 
connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and at the same time to insure the 
same protection to the contemplated railways or canals by the Tehuantepec 
and Panama routes, as well as to every other interoceanic communication 
which may be adopted to shorten the transit to or from our territories on the 
Pacific. It will be seen that this treaty does not propose to take money from 
the public Treasury to effect any object contemplated by it. It yields pro- 
tection to the capitalists who may undertake to construct any canal or railway 
across the Isthmus, commencing in the southern part of lilexico and terminat- 
ing in the territory of New Granada. It gives no preference to any one route 
over another, but proposes the same measure of protection for all which 
ingenuity and enterprise can construct." 

The Clayton-Bulwer treaty, concluded in his Administration, had this for its 
purpose and object. 

President Taylor also saw the necessity of a transcontinental railroad to the 
Pacific coast. At his direction the first steps were taken for making the pre- 
liminary surveys. Equally broad-minded and far-seeing was President Taylor 
in reference to the Hawaiian Islands. He declared that no foreign power 
should be allowed to get control of them. He pointed out their usefulness to 
our vessels engaged in commerce and whaling in the Pacific. Self-interest as 
well as humanity, he declared, directed that the people and government of the 



Zaciiary Taylor. 



313 



United States should extend every encouragement to the Hawaiian people to 
improve their government and raise themselves to a higher plane of civilization. 

In domestic affairs President Taylor was equally zealous in the line of 
progress and development. He urged the establishment of an agricultural 
department by the Government to foster and advance what he considered was 
the greatest industry of this country. He also started the geological surveys 
in California and other Western States, which have been of such incalculable 
value in developing their mineral resources. 

Known as a soldier as " Old Rough and Ready," he carried those qualities 
of fearlessness and decision into executive affairs and diplomacy. What he 
might have accomplished had Providence not cut short his career so early in 
his Administration, can be imagined from the vigorous governmental policy 
which he began. 




314 History of the United States. 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1849-1850. 



By Zachary Taylor. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 5, 1 849. 

CHOSEN by the body of the people under the assurance that my 
Administration would be devoted to the welfare of the whole 
country, and not to the support of any particular section or 
merely local interest, I this day renew the declarations I have hereto- 
fore made and proclaim my fixed determination to maintain to the 
extent of my ability the Government in its original purity and to 
adopt as the basis of my public policy those great republican doctrines 
which constitute the strength of our national existence. 

To command the Army and Navy of the United States; with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties and to appoint 
ambassadors and other officers; to give to Congress information of 
the state of the Union and recommend such measures as shall be 
judged to be necessary; and to take care that the laws shall be faith- 
fully executed. 

It is to be hoped that no international question can now arise which 
a government confident in its own strength and resolved to protect 
its own just rights may not settle by wise negotiation; and it eminently 
becomes a government like our own, founded on the morality and 
intelligence of its citizens and upheld by their affections, to exhaust 
every resort of honorable diplomacy before appealing to arms. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 4, 1849. 

A slight interruption of diplomatic intercourse which occurred 
between this Government and France, I am happy to say, has been 
terminated, and our minister there has been received. It is, therefore, 
unnecessary to refer now to the circumstances which led to that 
interruption. I need not express to you the sincere satisfaction with 
which we shall welcome the arrival of another envoy extraordinary 



Zachary Taylor. 315 

and minister plenipotentiary from a sister Republic to which we have 
so long been, and still remain, bound by the strongest ties of amity. 

Shortly after I had entered upon the discharge of the Executive 
duties I was apprised that a war steamer belonging to the German 
Empire was being fitted out in the harbor of New York with the aid 
of some of our naval officers, rendered under the permission of the 
late Secretary of the Navy. This permission was granted during an 
armistice between that Empire and the Kingdom of Denmark, which 
had been engaged in the Schleswig-Holstein war. Apprehensive that 
this act of intervention on our part might be viewed as a violation of 
our neutral obligations incurred by the treaty with Denmark and of 
the provisions of the act of Congress of the 20th of April, 1818, I 
directed that no further aid should be rendered by any agent or officer 
of the Navy; and I instructed the Secretary of State to apprise the 
minister of the German Empire accredited to this Government of my 
determination to execute the law of the United States and to maintain 
the faith of treaties with all nations. The correspondence which 
ensued between the Department of State and the minister of the 
German Empire is herewith laid before you. The execution of the 
law and the observance of the treaty were deemed by me to be due to 
the honor of the country, as well as to the sacred obligations of the 
Constitution. I shall not fail to pursue the same course should a 
similar case arise with any other nation. Having avowed the opinion 
on taking the oath of office that in disputes between conflicting foreign 
governments it is our interest not less than our duty to remain strictly 
neutral, I shall not abandon it. You will perceive from the cor- 
respondence submitted to you in connection with this subject that the 
course adopted in this case has been properly regarded by the 
belligerent powers interested in the matter. 

Although a minister of the United States to the German Empire 
was appointed by my predecessor in August, 1848, and has for a long 
time been in attendance at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and although a 
minister appointed to represent that Empire was received and 
accredited here, yet no such government as that of the German 
Empire has been definitively constituted. Mr. Donelson, our repre- 
sentative at Frankfort, remained there several months in the expecta- 
tion that a union of the German States under one constitution or form 
of government might at length be organized. It is believed by those 
well acquainted with the existing relations between Prussia and the 
States of Germany that no such union can be permanently established 



3i6 History of the United States. 

without her co-operation. In the event of the formation of such a 
union and the organization of a central power in Germany of which 
she should form a part, it would become necessary to withdraw our 
minister at Berlin; but while Prussia exists as an independent kingdom 
and diplomatic relations are maintained with her there can be no 
necessity for the continuance of the mission to Frankfort. I have, 
therefore, recalled Mr. Donelson and directed the archives of the 
legation at Frankfort to be transferred to the American legation at 
Berlin. 

Having been apprised that a considerable number of adventurers 
were engaged in fitting out a military expedition within the United 
States against a foreign country, and believing from the best informa- 
tion I could obtain that it was destined to invade the island of Cuba, 
I deemed it due to the friendly relations existing between the United 
States and Spain, to the treaty between the two nations, to the laws 
of the United States, and, above all, to the American honor to exert 
the lawful authority of this Government in suppressing the expedition 
and preventing the invasion. To this end I issued a proclamation 
enjoining it upon the officers of the United States, civil and military, 
to use all lawful means within their power. The expedition has been 
suppressed. 

The routes across the Isthmus at Tehuantepec and Panama are 
worthy of our serious consideration. They did not fail to engage the 
attention of my predecessor. The negotiator of the treaty of 
Guadalupe Hidalgo was instructed to offer a very large sum of money 
for the right of transit across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The 
Mexican Government did not accede to the proposition for the pur- 
chase of the right of way, probably because it had already contracted 
with private individuals for the construction of a passage from the 
Guasacualco River to Tehuantepec. I shall not renew any proposition 
to purchase for money a right which ought to be equally secured to all 
nations on payment of a reasonable toll to the owners of the improve- 
ment, who would doubtless be well contented with that compensation 
and the guaranties of the maritime states of the world in separate 
treaties negotiated with Mexico, binding her and them to protect those 
who should construct the work. Such guaranties would do more to 
secure the completion of the communication through the territory of 
Mexico than any other reasonable consideration that could be offered; 
and as Mexico herself would be the greatest gainer by the opening of 
this communication between the Gulf and the Pacific Ocean, it is pre- 



Zachary Taylor. 317 

sumed that she woukl not hesitate to yield her aid in the manner 
proposed to accompHsh an improvement so important to her own 
best interests. 

We have reason to hope that the proposed railroad across the 
Isthmus at Panama will be successfully constructed under the protec- 
tion of the late treaty with New Granada, ratified and exchanged by 
my predecessor on the loth day of June, 1848, which guarantees the 
perfect neutrality of the Isthmus and the rights of sovereignty and 
property of New Granada over that territory, " with a view that the 
free transit from ocean to ocean may not be interrupted or em- 
barrassed " during the existence of the treaty. It is our policy to 
encourage every practicable route across the Isthmus which connects 
North and South America, either by railroad or canal, which the 
energy and enterprise of our citizens may induce them to complete, 
and I consider it obligatory upon me to adopt that policy, especially 
in consequence of the absolute necessity of facilitating intercourse with 
our possessions on the Pacific. 

The position of the Sandwich Islands with reference to the territory 
of the United States on the Pacific, the success of our persevering and 
benevolent citizens who have repaired to that remote quarter in Chris- 
tianizing the natives and inducing them to adopt a system of govern- 
ment and laws suited to their capacity and wants, and the use made 
by our numerous whale ships of the harbors of the islands as places of 
resort for obtaining refreshments and repairs all combine to render 
their destiny peculiarly interesting to us. It is our duty to encourage 
the authorities of those islands in their efforts to improve and elevate 
the moral and political condition of the inhabitants, and we should 
make reasonable allowances for the difficulties inseparable from this 
task. We desire that the islands may maintain their independence and 
that other nations should concur with us in this sentiment. We could 
in no event be indifferent to their passing under the dominion of any 
other power. The principal commercial states have in this a common 
interest, and it is to be hoped that no one of them will attempt to inter- 
pose obstacles to the entire independence of the islands. 

No direct aid has been given by the General Government to the 
improvement of agriculture except by the expenditure of small sums 
for the collection and publication of agricultural statistics and for 
some chemical analyses, which have been thus far paid for out of the 
patent fund. This aid is, in my opinion, wholly inadequate. To give 
to this leading branch of American industry the encouragement which 



3i8 History of the United States. 

it merits, I respectfully recommend the establishment of an agricultural 
bureau, to be connected with the Department of the Interior. To 
elevate the social condition of the agriculturist, to increase his pros- 
perity, and to extend his means of usefulness to his country, by 
multiplying his sources of information, should be the study of every 
statesman and a primary object with every legislator. 

No civil government having been provided by Congress for Cali- 
fornia, the people of that Territory, impelled by the necessities of their 
political condition, recently met in convention for the purpose of form- 
ing a constitution and State government, which the latest advices give 
me. reason to suppose has been accomplished; and it is believed they 
will shortly apply for the admission of California into the Union as a 
sovereign State. Should such be the case, and should their constitu- 
tion be conformable to the requisitions of the Constitution of the 
United States, I recommend their application to the favorable con- 
sideration of Congress. A collector has been appointed at San Fran- 
cisco under the act of Congress extending the revenue laws over 
California, and measures have been taken to organize the custom- 
houses at that and the other ports mentioned in that act at the earliest 
period practicable. The collector proceeded overland, and advices 
have not yet been received of his arrival at San Francisco. Mean- 
while, it is understood that the customs have continued to be collected 
there by officers acting under the military authority, as they were 
during the Administration of my predecessor. It will, I think, be 
expedient to confirm the collections thus made, and direct the avails, 
after such allowances as Congress may think fit to authorize, to be 
expended within the Territory or to be paid into the Treasury for the 
purpose of meeting appropriations for the improvement of its rivers 
and harbors. 

A party engaged on the coast survey was dispatched to Oregon in 
January last. According to tht latest advices, they had not left Cali- 
fornia; and directions have been given to them, as soon as they shall 
have fixed on the sites of the two light-houses and the buoys authorized 
to be constructed and placed in Oregon, to proceed without delay to 
make reconnoissances of the most important points on the coast of 
California, and especially to examine and determine on sites for light- 
houses on that coast, the speedy erection of which is urgently 
demanded by our rapidly increasmg commerce. 

I have transferred the Indian agencies from upper Missouri and 
Council Bluffs to Santa Fe and Salt Lake, and have caused to be ap- 



/e6 .vA 




/ff ("x- /i i-^fx-e^. CL/i^.'tc /'/ //'-<:j 



:./. 



^/h-'f/^C .rtj.. .^~ -"--y. 



/Ac<^ 



4<.u.-, .^t- M'U 



/ 







SIGNATURE OF PRESIDFNT TAYLOR ON A STATE DOCUMENT. 



/ 




.'\' 



'/}>,, . y^ 



r 



/ 



7 , 



i-c/ /('<: 







FINAL- PAGE OF CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY, RATIFIED IN 
PRESIDENT TAYXOR'S ADMINISTRATION. 



Zachary Taylor. 321 

pointed subagents in the valleys of the Gila, the Sacramento, and the 
San Joaquin rivers. Still further legal provisions will be necessary 
for the effective and successful extension of our system of Indian 
intercourse over the new territories. 

I recommend the establishment of a branch mint in California, as it 
will, in my opinion, afford important facilities to those engaged in 
mining, as well as to the Government in the disposition of the mineral 
lands. 

I also recommend that commissions be organized by Congress to 
examine and decide upon the validity of the present subsisting land 
titles in California and New Mexico, and that provision be made for 
the establishment of offices of surveyor-general in New Mexico, 
California, and Oregon and for the surveying and bringing into 
market the public lands in those Territories. Those lands, remote in 
position and difficult of access, ought to be disposed of on terms 
liberal to all, but especially favorable to the early emigrants. 

In order that the situation and character of the principal mineral 
deposits in California may be ascertained, I recommend that a geo- 
logical and mineralogical exploration be connected with the linear 
surveys, and that the mineral lands be divided into small lots suitable 
for mining and be disposed of by sale or lease, so as to give our citizens 
an opportunity of procuring a permanent right of property in the soil. 
This would seem to be as important to the success of mining as of 
agricultural pursuits. 

The great mineral wealth of California and the advantages which 
its ports and harbors and those of Oregon afford to commerce, 
especially with the islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans and the 
populous regions of eastern Asia, make it certain that there will arise 
in a few years large and prosperous communities on our western coast. 
It, therefore, beconies important that a line of communication, the 
best and most expeditious which the nature of the country will admit, 
should be opened within the territory of the United States from the 
navigable waters of the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific. 
Opinion, as elicited and expressed by tvv-o large and respectable con- 
ventions lately assembled at St. Louis and Memphis, points to a rail- 
road as that which, if practicable, will best meet the wishes and wants 
of the country. But while this, if in successful operation, would be a 
work of great national importance and of a value to the country which 
it would be difficult to estimate, it ought also to be regarded as an 
undertaking of vast magnitude and expense, and one which must, if it 



322 History of the United States. 

be indeed practicable, encounter many difficulties in its construction 
and use. Therefore, to avoid failure and disappointment; to enable 
Congress to judge whether in the condition of the country through 
which it must pass the work be feasible, and, if it be found so, whether 
it should be undertaken as a national improvement or left to individual 
enterprise, and in the latter alternative what aid, if any, ought to be 
extended to it by the Government, I recommend as a preliminary 
measure a careful reconnoissance of the several proposed routes by a 
scientific corps and a report as to the practicability of making such a 
road, with an estimate of the cost of its construction and support. 

I invite attention to the recommendation of the Secretary of the 
Navy on the subject of a reorganization of the Navy in its various 
grades of officers, and the establishing of a retired list for such of the 
officers as are disqualified for active and effective service. Should 
Congress adopt some such measure as is recommended, it will greatly 
increase the efficiency of the Navy and reduce its expenditures. 

I also ask your attention to the views expressed by him in reference 
to the employment of war steamers and in regard to the contracts for 
the transportation of the United States mails and the operation of the 
system upon the prosperity of the Navy. 

By an act of Congress passed August 14, 1848, provision was made 
for extending post-office and mail accommodations to California and 
Oregon. Exertions have been made to execute that law, but the 
limited provisions of the act, the inadequacy of the means it author- 
izes, the ill adaptation of our post-office laws to the situation of that 
country, and the measure of compensation for services allowed by 
those laws, compared with the prices of labor and rents in California, 
render those exertions in a great degree ineffectual. More particular 
and efficient provision by law is required on this subject. 

The act of 1845 reducing postage has now, by its operation during 
four years, produced results fully showing that the income from such 
reduced postage is sufficient to sustain the whole expense of the service 
of the Post-Office Department, not including the cost of transporta- 
tion in mail steamers on the lines from New York to Chagres and 
from Panama to Astoria, which have not been considered by Congress 
as properly belonging to the mail service. 

It is submitted to the wisdom of Congress whether a further re- 
duction of postage should not now be made, more particularly on the 
letter correspondence. This should be relieved from the unjust burden 
of transporting and delivering the franked matter of Congress, for 



Zaciiary Taylor. 323 

which public service provision should be made from the Treasury. 
I confidently believe that a change may safely be made reducing all 
single-letter postage to the uniform rate of five cents, regardless of 
distance, without thereby imposing any greater tax on the Treasury 
that would constitute a very moderate compensation for this public 
service; and I, therefore, respectfully recommend such a reduction. 
Should Congress prefer to abolish the franking privilege entirely, it 
seems probable that no demand on the Treasury would result from 
the proposed reduction of postage. Whether any further diminution 
should now be made, or the result of the reduction to five cents, which 
I have recommended, should be first tested, is submitted to your 
decision. 



The President with deep regret announces (June 19, 1849) ^o the 
American people the death of James K. Polk, late President of the 
United States, which occurred at Nashville on the 15th instant. 

A nation is suddeidy called upon to mourn the loss of one the recol- 
lection of whose long services in its councils will be forever preserved 
on the tablets of history. 

As a mark of respect to the memory of a citizen who has been dis- 
tinguished by the highest honors which his country could bestow, it 
is ordered that the Executive Mansion and the several Departments at 
Washington be immediately placed in mourning and all business be 
suspended during to-morrow. 

It is further ordered that the War and Navy Departments cause 
suitable military and naval honors to be paid on this occasion to the 
memory of the illustrious dead. 



I herewith transmit to the Senate (April 22, 1850), for their ad- 
vice with regard to its ratification, a convention between the United 
States and Great Britain, concluded at Washington on the 19th in- 
stant by John M. Clayton, Secretary of State, on the part of the 
United States, and by the Right Hon. Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, on 
the part of Great Britain. 

This treaty has been negotiated in accordance with the general 
views expressed in my message to Congress in December last. Its 
object is to establish a commercial alliance with all great maritime 



324 History of the United States. 

states for the protection of a contemplated ship canal through the 
territory of Nicaragua to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, 
and at the same time to insure the same protection to the contemplated 
railways or canals by the Tehuantepec and Panama routes, as well as 
to every other interoceanic communication which may be adopted to 
shorten the transit to or from our territories on the Pacific. 

It will be seen that this treaty does not propose to take money 
from the public Treasury to efifect any object contemplated by it. 
It yields protection to the capitalists who may undertake to construct 
any canal or railway across the Isthmus, commencing in the southern 
part of Mexico and terminating in the territory of New Granada. It 
gives no preference to any one route over another, but proposes the 
same measure of protection for all which ingenuity and enterprise 
can construct. Should this treaty be ratified, it will secure in future 
the liberation of all Central America from any kind of foreign aggres- 
sion. 

At the time negotiations were opened with Nicaragua for the con- 
struction of a canal through her territory I found Great Britain in 
possession of nearly half of Central America, as the ally and protector 
of the Mosquito King. It has been my object in negotiating this 
treaty not only to secure the passage across the Isthmus to the Gov- 
ernment and citizens of the United States by the construction of a 
great highway dedicated to the use of all nations on equal terms, but to 
maintain the independence and sovereignty of all the Central American 
Republics. The Senate will judge how far these objects have been 
effected. 

If there be any who would desire to seize and annex any portion of 
the territories of these weak sister republics to the American Union, 
or to extend our dominion over them, I do not concur in their 
policy; and I wish it to be understood in reference to that subject that 
I adopt the views entertained, so far as I know, by all my predecessors. 

The principles by which I have been regulated in the negotiation 
of this treaty are in accordance with the sentiments well expressed by 
my immediate predecessor on the loth of February, 184/; when he 
communicated to the Senate the treaty with New Granada for the 
protection of the railroad at Panama. It is in accordance with the 
whole spirit of the resolution of the Senate of the 3d of March, 1835, 
referred to by President Polk, and with the policy adopted by Presi- 
dent Jackson immediately after the passage of that resolution, wdio 
dispatched an agent to Central America and New Granada " to open 



Zachary Taylor. 325 

negotiations with those Governments for the purpose of effectually 
protecting, by suitable treaty stipulations with them, such individuals 
or companies as might undertake to open a communication between 
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by the construction of a ship canal 
across the Isthmus which connects North and South America, and 
of securing forever by such stipulations the free and equal right of 
navigating such canal to all such nations on the payment of such 
reasonable tolls as might be established to compensate the capitalists 
who should engage in such undertaking and complete the work." 

I have good reason to believe that France and Russia stand ready 
to accede to this treaty, and that no other great maritime state will 
refuse its accession to an arrangement so well calculated to diffuse the 
blessings of peace, commerce, and civilization, and so honorable to all 
nations which may enter into the engagement. 



LIFE OF ZACHARY TAYLOR. 

ZACHARY TAYLOR was born November 24, 1784, in Orange 
county, Va. He was a son of Richard Taylor, one of the 
most valiant colonels of the Revolutionary War. When he 
was a year old his father moved to Kentucky, near the present site 
of Louisville, where he died. In this newly-settled country Zachary 
had few educational advantages, but the conditions and environs about 
him formed his sturdy character, and led up to his illustrious career. 
He was appointed lieutenant in the Seventh Infantry in 1808, and was 
made captain of the same regiment in 1810. About this time he 
married Miss Margaret Smith, of Maryland. In 1814 he led an ex- 
pedition against the Indians and their British allies on Rock River. 
He became lieutenant-colonel of the First Infantry in 1819, and 
colonel in 1832. He was engaged in fighting in the Black Hawk 
and other Indhn campaigns until 1836, when he was ordered to 
Florida for servxe in the Seminole War, where he distinguished him- 
self and was brevetted brigadier-general, and finally given the chief 
command in Florida. He was assigned to the command of the 
southern division of the western department of the Army in 1840, and 
at this time made his home at Baton Rouge, La. He was ordered 
to the defense of Texas, which had been annexed to the United 
States, in 1S45. H^ proceeded to Corpus Christi, met and engaged 



326 History of the United States. 

the enemy, drove them across the Rio Grande, and on May i8th, 
occupied Matamoras, where he remained until he obtained reinforce- 
ments. He took Monterey in September, then came his victories at 
Palo Alto, and Resaca de la Palma. The February after he won 
the battle of Buena Vista, which aroused great enthusiasm through- 
out the Union. He was appointed major-general, June 27, 1846, and 
made commander-in-chief of all the American forces in Mexico, until 
(General Scott was ordered there in 1846. He returned to his home in 
Louisiana, in November, and was greeted, wherever he appeared, 
with an ovation from the people. He was nominated for President 
by the Whigs, June 7, 1848, and was elected November 7th. He 
was inaugurated March 5, 1849, ^nd died in the White House, July 
9, 1850. He was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Ky. 



Millard Fillmore. 



327 




OLD HOME OF MILLARD FILLMORE, AT BUFFALO, NEW YORK. 



CHAPTER XIII 



MILLARD FILLMORE'S RISE TO FAME. 



By Congressman W. F. Aldrich, of Alabama. 



THE Republic has not had a President who was a more typical American 
than Millard Fillmore. His parents were Nathaniel F. Fillmore and 
Phoebe Millard, who were married in their native Vermont and moved into 
the wilds of Cayuga county, New York, in 1799- Millard was born at the town 
of Summer Hill, January 7. 1800, and was the eldest of nine children. 

That section of New York was then a wilderness, the nearest house to the 
Fillmore's being four miles away. The lands acquired by the family had a 
defective title and a few years later they were driven from their home. 



328 History of the United States. 

Millard, from his early boyhood, showed a deep love of learning, and was 
always found reading or studying when other boys of his age were at play. 
But owing to the meagre resources of his father, and the steady and rapid 
increase of the family, Millard became an apprentice to a carder and cloth 
finisher in Sparta, when he was 15 years old, in order to aid in the support of 
the household. All his leisure was spent in study. Books were scarce in those 
days, and school advantages out of reach. But the poor lad had a spirit within 
him which soared above all obstacles. Having mastered his trade and attained 
to the position of a master workman, he decided to study law. His employer 
tried to dissuade him from a course which the latter regarded as foolish, but 
Fillmore carried out his intention and in time became one of the noted lawyers 
of the State. As a boy he was above reproach, and he became a model man, 
a lover of peace and concord, the soul of honor, and the speaker of truth. 

The Fillmore family moved to Buffalo in 1820, and Millard was admitted to 
practice at the bar in 1823, though he had not performed the regular term of 
study. He went to Aurora to begin his law practice, and was put to many 
shifts to earn a livelihood until his shingle should draw clients to his door. 
He taught school and did any work that presented. But such persistence and 
ability were sure to win, and in three years he was able to marry Abigail, the 
daughter of the Rev. Lemuel Powers, of Erie county. 

In 1829 he was elected to the legislature. Fearlessly opposing the Democratic 
majority in that body, he ran counter to their most cherished schemes and 
made a record for sterling worth and high principle. He became known as the 
" Young member from Erie," but he sought rather to conciliate than to stir up 
strife. He thought more of right action than of party expediency. When his 
term was ended he went back to his law practice. He had learned " the ropes " 
at Albany, but his constituents believed him capable of doing much more. He 
was, consequently, re-elected, and was placed on the " Committee of Public 
Defense." 

This was supposed to be a sinecure in time of peace, but Fillmore took 
another view of it. He thought the people wanted defending from some of the 
laws, and he set to work to have the imprisonment of debtors made illegal. 
This law had filled the jails of the State with men who had committed no other 
offense than that of being unable to pay their debts. Thurlow Weed and 
Francis Granger supported Fillmore in his movement for its repeal, and despite 
the fiercest opposition the barbarous provision of imprisonment for debt was 
wiped from the statute books. 

Fillmore brought into his political career an unfaltering trust in truth and 
goodness. His mind was too simple, and his honesty too rugged to permit 
him to profit by any of the chicanery of politics which was as prevalent in his 
day as it is now. 





^.i^oCj ^ 




TIIIRTKENTII PRESIDENT OE THE UNITED STATES. 



PFW S'-l \-AMIA 



\E\V YORK 







'k 




TARIFF AGITATION OF 1846, WITH CARICATURES OF POLK. BUCHANAN. CALHOUN 
AND OTHER POLITICAL LEADERS OF THE PERIOD. 




CARTOON ON BUCHANAN S CURRENCY POLICY. 



Millard Fillmore. 331 

In 1832 he was sent to Congress by the same constituents whom he had 
served so well in the legislature. There he frankly avowed his opposition to 
slavery, favored the right of petition for the abolition of the slave trade, and 
advocated the doing away with slavery in the District of Columbia. In the 
Twenty-seventh Congress he was chairman of the Committee on Ways and 
Means, and was the first man to propose a banking system, based on the bonds 
of the Government. He was unalterably opposed to the United States Bank, 
and believed that its charter should be repealed. 

With these principles well known to the people of the country, he became 
Vice-President with General Taylor, and at the death of the latter, entered on 
his duties as President of the United States. 

Like other Presidents who succeeded him, he upheld the Fugitive Slave Law 
though himself opposed to slavery. He felt it his duty to accept the con- 
struction put upon the Constitution by the Supreme Court, and saw no im- 
mediate prospect of that instrument being modified to meet his views. The 
public interests were subserved by his Administration, and at its end there was 
a feeling of harmony among the people. The country was never more happy 
or prosperous. Not a note of discord broke the tranquillity of Fillmore's term 
of office, and when he retired definitely from public life he was twice brought 
forward by his friends for re-election to the presidency. 

John Quincy Adams has left on record as his opinion that Fillmore was 
" one of the ablest, most faithful and fairest-minded men with whom he had 
ever served in public life." 



IaS^ . ^ Cti-^uJu^ 



332 History of the United States. 



ADMINISTRATION OF 185(^1853. 



By Millard Fillmore. 



Ihave to perform the melancholy duty of announcing (July 10, 1850) 
to you that it has pleased Almighty God to remove from this life 
Zachary Taylor, late President of the United States. He deceased 
last evening at the hour of half-past 10 o'clock, July 9, 1850, in the 
midst of his family and surrounded by affectionate friends, calmly and 
in the full possession of all his faculties. Among his last words were 
these, which he uttered with emphatic distinctness: 

" I Iiave alwaj'S done my duty. I am ready to die. My only regret is for the 
friends I leave behind me." 

Having announced to you, fellow-citizens, this most afiflicting be- 
reavement, and assuring you that it has penetrated no heart with 
deeper grief than mine, it remains for me to say that I propose this 
day at 12 o'clock, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, in the 
presence of both Houses of Congress, to take the oath prescribed by 
the Constitution, to enable me to enter on the execution of the ofifice 
which this event has devolved on me. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 2, 1850. 

Being suddenly called in the midst of the last session of Con- 
gress by a painful dispensation of Divine Providence to the re- 
sponsible station which I now hold, I contented myself with such 
communications to the Legislature as the exigency of the moment 
seemed to require. The country was shrouded in mourning for the 
loss of its venerable Chief Magistrate and all hearts were penetrated 
with grief. Neither the time nor the occasion appeared to require or 
to justify on my part any general expression of political opinions or 
any announcement of the principles which would govern me in the 
discharge of the duties to the performance of which I had been so 



Millard Fillmore. 333 

unexpectedly called. I trust, therefore, that it may not be deemed 
inappropriate if I avail myself of this opportunity of the reassembling of 
Congress to make known my sentiments in a general manner in re- 
gard to the policy which ought to be pursued by the Government both 
in its intercourse with foreign nations and its management and ad- 
ministration of internal affairs. 

In our domestic policy the Constitution will be my guide, and in 
questions of doubt I shall look for its interpretation to the judicial 
decisions of that tribunal which was established to expound it and to 
the usage of the Government, sanctioned by the acquiescence of the 
country. I regard all its provisions as equally binding. In all its 
parts it is the will of the people expressed in the most solemn form, 
and the constituted authorities are but agents to carry that will into 
efifect. Every power which it has granted is to be exercised ^or the 
public good; but no pretense of utility, no honest conviction, even, 
of what might be expedient, can justify the assumption of any power 
not granted. The powers conferred upon the Government and their 
distribution to the several departments are as clearly expressed in that 
sacred instrument as the imperfection of human language will allow, 
and I deem it my first duty not to question its wisdom, add to its pro- 
visions, evade its requirements, or nullify its commands. 

A convention was negotiated between the United States and Great 
Britain in April last for facilitating and protecting the construction 
of a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and for other 
purposes. The instrument has since been ratified by the contracting 
parties, the exchange of ratifications has been effected and proclama- 
tion thereof has been duly made. 

In addition to the stipulations contained in this convention, two 
other objects remain to be accomplished between the contracting 
powers: 

First. The designation and establishment of a free port at each end 
of the canal. 

Second. An agreement fixing the distance from the shore within 
which belligerent maritime operations shall not be carried on. 

On these points there is little doubt that the two Governments will 
come to an understanding. 

The company of citizens of the United States who have acquired 
from the State of Nicaragua the privilege of constructing a ship canal 
between the two oceans through the territory of that State have 
made progress in their preliminary arrangements. The treaty be- 



334 History of the United States. 

tween the United States and Great Britain of the 19th of April, 1850, 
above referred to, being now in operation, it is to be hoped that the 
guaranties which it offers will be sufficient to secure the completion of 
the work with all practicable expedition. It is obvious that this result 
would be indefinitely postponed if any other than peaceful measures 
for the purpose of harmonizing conflicting claims to territory in that 
quarter should be adopted. It will consequently be my endeavor to 
cause any further negotiations on the part of this Government which 
may be requisite for this purpose to be so conducted as to bring them 
to a speedy and successful close. 

The treaty between the United States and His Majesty the King 
of the Hawaiian Islands, which has recently been made public, will, 
it is believed, have a beneficial efiect upon the relations between the 
two countries. 

The relations between those parts of the island of St. Domingo 
which were formerly colonies of Spain and France, respectively, are 
still in an unsettled condition. The proximity of that island to the 
United States and the delicate questions involved in the existing con- 
troversy there render it desirable that it should be permanently and 
speedily adjusted. The interests of humanity and of general com- 
merce also demands this; and as intimations of the same sentiment 
have been received from other governments, it is hoped that some 
plan may soon be devised to effect the object in a manner likely to give 
general satisfaction. The Government of the United States will not 
fail, by the exercise of all proper friendly offices, to do all in its 
power to put an end to the destructive war which has raged between 
the different parts of the island and to secure to them both the benefits 
of peace and commerce. 

All experience has demonstrated the wisdom and policy of raising 
a large portion of revenue for the support of Government from duties 
on goods imported. The power to lay these duties is unquestionable, 
and its chief object, of course, is to replenish the Treasury. But if 
in doing this an incidental advantage may be gained by encouraging 
the industry of our own citizens, it is our duty to avail ourselves of 
that advantage. 

A duty laid upon an article which can not be produced in this coun- 
try, such as tea or coffee, adds to the cost of the article, and is chiefly 
or wholly paid by the consumer. But a duty laid upon an article 
which may be produced here stimulates the skill and industry of our 
own country to produce the same article, which is brought into the 



Millard Fillmore. '335 

market in competition with the foreign article, and the importer is 
thus compelled to reduce his price to that at which the domestic article 
can be sold, thereby throwing a part of the duty upon the producer 
of the foreign article. The continuance of this process creates the 
skill and mvites the capital which finally enable us to produce the 
article much cheaper than it could have been procured from abroad, 
thereby benefiting both the producer and the consumer at home. The 
consequence of this is that the artisan and the agriculturist are brought 
together, each effords a ready market for the produce of the other, 
the whole country becomes prosperous, and the ability to produce 
every necessary of hfe renders us independent in war as well as in 
peace. 

There being no mint in California, I am informed that the laborers 
in the mines are compelled to dispose of their gold dust at a large 
discount. This appears to me to be a heavy and unjust tax upon the 
labor of those employed in extracting this precious metal, and I doubt 
not you will be disposed at the earliest period possible to relieve them 
from it by the establishment of a mint. In the meantime, as an 
assayer's oflfice is established there, I would respectfully submit for 
your consideration the propriety of authorizing gold bullion which 
has been assayed and stamped to be received in payment of Govern- 
ment dues. I can not conceive that the Treasury would suffer any 
loss by such a provision, which will at once raise bullion to its par 
value, and thereby save (if I am rightly informed) many millions of 
dollars to the laborers which are now paid in brokerage to convert this 
precious metal into available funds. This discount upon their hard 
earnings is a heavy tax, and every effort should be made by the 
Government to relieve them from so great a burden. 

A revision of the code for the government of the Navy seems to 
require the immediate consideration of Congress. Its system of crimes 
and punishments have undergone no change for half a century un- 
td the last session, though its defects have been often and ably pointed 
out; and the abolition of a particular species of corporal punishment, 
which then took place, without providing any substitute, has left the 
service in a state of defectiveness which calls for prompt correction. 
I therefore recommend that the whole subject be revised without de- 
lay and such a system established for the enforcement of discipline 
as shall be at once humane and elTectual. 

At the close of the last fiscal year the length of the inland mail 
routes in the United States, not embracing the service in Oregon and 



7,^6 PIlSTORY OF THE UNITED StATES. 

California, was 178,672 miles, the annual transportations thereon 
46,541,423 miles, and the annual cost of such transportation 
$2,724,426. 

I am happy to find that the fiscal condition of the Department is 
such as to justify tlie Postmaster-General in recommending the re- 
duction of our inland letter postage to 3 cents the single letter when 
prepaid and 5 cents when not prepaid. He also recommends that 
the prepaid rate shall be reduced to 2 cents whenever the revenues 
of the Department, after the reduction, shall exceed its expenditures 
by more than 5 per cent, for two consecutive years; that the postage 
upon California and other letters sent by our ocean steamers shall be 
much reduced, and that the rates of postage on newspapers, pamphlets, 
periodicals, and other printed matter shall be modified and some re- 
duction thereon made. 

I entertain no doubt of the authority of Congress to make appro- 
priations for leading objects in that class of public works com- 
prising what are usually called works of internal improvement. 
The magnificent Mississippi and its tributaries and the vast lakes of 
the North and Northwest appear to me to fall within the exercise 
of the power as justly and as clearly as the ocean and the Gulf of 
Mexico. It is a mistake to regard expenditures judiciously made for 
these objects as expenditures for local purposes. The position or 
sight of the work is necessarily local, but its utility is general. A ship 
canal around the Falls of St. Mary of less than a mile in length, be- 
tween Lakes Superior and Huron, would yet be national in its purpose 
and its benefits, as it would remove the only obstruction to a naviga- 
tion of more than 1,000 miles, affecting several States, as well as our 
commercial relations with Canada. So, too, the breakwater at the 
mouth of the Delaware is erected, not for the conclusive benefit of the 
States bordering on the bay and river of that name, but for that of the 
whole coastwise navigation of the United States and, to a considerable 
extent, also of foreign commerce. If a ship be lost on the bar at the 
entrance of a Southern port for want of sufficient depth of water, it is 
very likely to be a Northern ship; and if a steamboat be sunk in any 
part of the Mississippi on account of its channel not having been prop- 
erly cleared of obstructions, it may be a boat belonging to either of 
eight or ten States. I may add, as somewhat remarkable, that among 
all the thirty-one States there is none that is not to a greater or less 
extent bounded on the ocean, or the Gulf of Mexico, or one of the 
Great Lakes, or some navigable river. 



Millard Fillmore. 337 

It was hardly to have been expected that the series of measures 
passed at your last session with the view of healing the sectional 
differences which had sprung from the slavery and territorial questions 
should at once have realized their beneficent purpose. All mutual 
concession in the nature of a compromise must necessarily be unwel- 
come to men of extreme opinions. And though without such con- 
cessions our Constitution could not have been formed, and can not 
be permanently sustained, yet we have seen them made the subject 
of bitter controversy in both sections of the Republic. It required 
matiy months of discussion and deliberation to secure the concurrence 
of a majority of Congress in their favor. It would be strange if they 
had been received with immediate approbation by people and States 
prejudiced and heated by the exciting controversies of their representa- 
tives. I believe those measures to have been required by the cir- 
cumstances and condition of the country. I believe they were neces- 
sary to allay asperities and animosities that were rapidly alienating 
one section of the country from another and destroying those fraternal 
sentiments which are the strongest supports of the Constitution. 
They were adopted in the spirit of conciliation and for the purpose of 
conciliation. I believe that a great majority of our fellow-citizens 
sympathize in that spirit and that purpose, and in the main approve 
and are prepared in all respects to sustain these enactments. I can 
not doubt that the American people, bound together by kindred 
blood and common traditions, still cherish a paramount regard for the 
Union of their fathers, and that they are ready to rebuke any attempt 
to violate its integrity, to disturb the compromises on which it is 
based, or to resist the laws which have been enacted under its au- 
thority. 

SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 2, 185I. 

Since the close of the last Congress certain Cuban and other for- 
eigners resident in the United States, who were more or less concerned 
in the previous invasion of Cuba, instead of being discouraged by its 
failure have again abused the hospitality of this country by making it 
the scene of the equipment of another military expedition against that 
possession of Her Catholic Majesty, in which they were countenanced, 
aided, and joined by citizens of the United States. On receiving in- 
telligence ihat such designs were entertained, I lost no time in issuing 
such instructions to the proper officers of the United States as seemed 
to be called for by the occasion. By the proclamation a copy of 



338 History of the United States. 

which is herewith submitted I also warned those who might be in 
dan<^er of being inveigled into this scheme of its unlawful character 
and of the penalties which they would incur. For some time there 
was reason to hope that these measures had sufficed to prevent any 
such attempt. This hope, however, proved to be delusive. Very early 
in the morning of the 3d of August a steamer called the " Pampero " 
departed fconi New Orleans for Cuba, having on board upward of 
400 armed men with evident intentions to make war upon the au- 
thorities of the island. This expedition was set on foot in palpable 
violation f)f the laws of the United States. Its leader was a Spaniard, 
and several of the chief officers and some others engaged in it were 
foreigners. The persons composing it, however, were mostly citi- 
zens of the United States. 

Before the expedition set out, and probably before it was organized, 
a slight insurrectionary movement, which appears to have been soon 
suppressed, had taken place in the eastern quarter of Cuba. The 
importance of this movement was, unfortunately, so much exaggerated 
in the accounts of it published in this country that these adventurers 
seem to have been led to believe that the Creole population of the island 
not only desired to throw ofT the authority of the mother country, 
but had resolved upon that step and had begun a well-concerted 
enterprise for effecting it. The persons engaged in the expedition 
were generally young and ill-informed. The steamer in which they 
embarked left New Orleans stealthily and without clearance. After 
touching at Key West, she proceeded to the coast of Cuba, and on the 
night between the nth and 12th of August landed the persons on 
board at Playtas, within about 20 leagues of Havana. 

The main body of them proceeded to and took possession of an 
inland village six leagues distant, leaving others to follow in charge of 
the baggage as soon as the means of transportation could be obtained. 
The latter, having taken up their line of march to connect themselves 
with the main body, and having proceeded about four leagues into the 
country, were attacked on the morning of the 13th by a body of 
Spanish troops, and a bloody conflict ensued, after which they re- 
treated to the place of disembarkation, where about fifty of them ob- 
tained boats and re-embarked therein. They were, however, inter- 
cepted among the keys near the shore by a Spanish steamer cruising 
on the coast, captured and carried to Havana, and after being exam- 
ined before a military court were sentenced to be publicly executed, 
and the sentence was carried into efTect on the i6th of August. 



/,/ / ^ /.' -/^ 



, ''^' ■//.'/ /.■/; 



''^^^ -^^ . .-^ . v^^^%/ 






/^,. /.-^r^v-' 



//^; 



// 



'/ ,'^^?-> ' 






/A- 



/ 



'..<'..- y/ ^:. 



/-'■■ .-/y^t^/^.-/ . ''' 






f . 



A-^ 



/ 



/■' 



/y .^r < /, 



Vr^ 



1/9 






'•'' . /y^^y .^/Aa; . 'r\Y.W. 






PRESIDENT FILLMORE'S FUGITIVE SLAVE PROCLAMATION. 



L 









■■<^ 






^ 






':^. 






^i^ 



LAST PAGE OF FTLL^IORE'S FUGITIVE SLAVE PROCLAMATION. 



Millard Fillmore. 341 

On receiving information of what had occurred Commodore Fox- 
hall A. Parker was instructed to proceed in the steam frigate " Sara- 
nac " to Havana and inquire into the charges against tlie persons 
executed, the circumstances under which they were taken and whatso- 
ever referred to their trial and sentence. 

According to the record of the examination, the prisoners all 
admitted the oiTenses charged against them, of being hostile invaders 
of the island. At the time of their trial and execution the main body 
of the invaders was still in the field making war upon the Spanish 
authorities and Spanish subjects. After the lapse of some days, 
being overcome by the Spanish troops, they dispersed on the 24th of 
August. Lopez, their leader, was captured some days after, and 
executed on the ist of September. Many of his remaining followers 
were killed or died of hunger and fatigue, and the rest were made 
prisoners. Of these none appear to have been tried or executed. 
Several of them were pardoned upon application of their friends and 
others, and the rest, about 160 in number, were sent to Spain. Of 
the final disposition made of these we have no official information. 

It is earnestly to be hoped that the differences which have for 
some time past been pending between the Government of the French 
Republic and that of the Sandwich Islands may be peaceably and 
durably adjusted so as to secure the independence of those islands. 
Long before the events which have of late imparted so much im- 
portance to the possessions of the United States on the Pacific we 
acknowledged the independence of the Hawaiian Government. This 
Government was first in taking that step, and several of the leading 
powers of Europe im.mediately followed. We were influenced in this 
measure by the existing and prospective importance of the islands as 
a place of refuge and refreshment for our vessels engaged in the whale 
fishery, and by the consideration that they lie in the course of the 
great trade which must at no distant day be carried on between the 
western coast of North America and eastern Asia. 

We were also inliuenced by a desire that those islands should not 
pass under the control of any other great maritime State, but should 
remain in an independent condition, and so be accessible and useful to 
the commerce of all nations. I need not say that the importance 
of these considerations has been greatly enhanced by the sudden 
and vast development which the interests of the United States have 
attained in California and Oregon, and the policy heretofore adopted 
in regard to those islands will be steadily pursued. 



342 History of the United States. 

The tolling bells announce the death (Tuesday, June 29, 1852 — 
12:30 o'clock p. m.) of the Hon. Henry Clay. Though this event has 
been long anticipated, yet the painful bereavement could never be 
fully realized. 

I have received (June 26, 1852), the resolution of the Senate of the 
nth instant, passed in executive session, making inquiry respecting 
supposed propositions of the King of the Sandwich Islands to convey 
the sovereignty of those islands to the United States and requesting 
all official information in my possession touching the subject. 

This request has been taken into the most respectful consideration, 
but the conclusion at which I have arrived is that the public interest 
would not be promoted, but, on the contrary, might under circum- 
stances of possible occurrence, be seriously endangered if it were now 
to be complied with. 

I have the pleasure of announcing (December 13, 1850) to Congress 
the agreement on the part of Texas to the propositions offered to that 
State by the act of Congress approved on the 9th day of September 
last, entitled "An act proposing to the State of Texas the establish- 
ment of her northern and w'estern boundaries, the relinquishment by 
the said State of all territory claimed by her exterior to said boundaries 
and of all her claims upon the United States, and to establish a 
Territorial government for New Mexico." 

By the terms of that act it was required that the agreement of Texas 
to the propositions contained in it should be given on or before the 
1st day of December, 1850. 

From the sources of public information it would appear that a very 
remarkable degree of unanimity prevailed, not only in the legislature, 
but among the people of Texas, in respect to the agreement of the 
State to that which had been proposed by Congress. 



THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 6, 1852. 

Within a few weeks the public mind has been deeply affected by 
the death of Daniel Webster, filling at his decease the office of Sec- 
retary of State. His associates in the executive government have 
sincerely sympathized with his family and the public generally on this 
mournful occasion. His commanding talents, his great political and 
professional eminence, his well-tried patriotism, and his long and 
faithful services in the most important public trusts have caused his 



Millard Fillmore. 343 

death to be lamented throughout the country and have earned for 
him a lasting place in our history. 

Early in the present year official notes were received from the 
ministers of France and England inviting the Government of the 
L;nited States to become a party with Great Britain and France to a 
tripartite convention, in virtue of which the three powers should 
severally and collectively disclaim now and for the future all intention 
to obtain possession of the island of Cuba, and should bind themselves 
to discountenance all attempts to that effect on the part of any power 
or individual whatever. This invitation has been respectfully declined, 
for reasons which it would occupy too much space in this communica- 
tion to state in detail, but which led me to think that the proposed 
measure would be of doubtful constitutionality, impolitic, and un- 
availing. I have, however, in common with several of my predeces- 
sors, directed the ministers of France and England to be assured that 
the United States entertain no designs against Cuba, but that, on the 
contrary, I should regard its incorporation into the Union at the 
present time as fraught with serious peril. 

Were this island comparatively destitute of inhabitants or occupied 
by a kindred race, I should regard it, if voluntarily ceded by Spain, as 
a most desirable acquisition. But under existing circumstances I 
should look upon its incorporation into our Union as a very hazardous 
measure. It would bring into the Confederacy a population of a 
different national stock, speaking a different language, and not likely 
to harmonize with the other members. It would, probably, affect in a 
prejudicial manner the industrial interests of the South, and it might 
revive those conflicts of opinion between the different sections of the 
country which lately shook the Union to its center, and which have 
been so happily compromised. 

Our settlements on the shores of the Pacific have already given a 
gr:at extension, and in some respects a new direction, to our com- 
merce in that ocean. A direct and rapidly increasing intercourse has 
sprung up with eastern Asia. The waters of the Northern Pacific, even 
into the Arctic Sea, have of late years been frequented by our whale- 
men. The application of steam to the general purposes of navigation 
is becoming daily more common, and makes it desirable to obtain 
fuel and other necessary supplies at convenient points on the route 
between Asia and our Pacific shores. Our unfortunate countrymen 
who from time to time suffer shipwreck on the coasts of the eastern 
seas are entitled to protection. Besides these specific objects, the 



344 



History of the United States. 



general prosperity of our States on the Pacific requires that an at- 
tempt should be made to open the opposite regions of Asia to a 
mutually beneficial intercourse. It is obvious that this attempt could 
be made by no power to so great advantage as by the United States, 
whose constitutional system excludes every idea of distant colonial 
dependencies. I have accordingly been led to order an appropriate 
naval force to Japan, under the command of a discreet and intelligent 
officer of the highest rank known to our service. He is instructed to 
endeavor to obtain from the Government of that country some relaxa- 
tion of the inhospitable and antisocial system which it has pursued 
for about two centuries. He has been directed particularly to remon- 
strate in the strongest language against the cruel treatment to which 
our shipwrecked mariners have often been subjected and to insist that 
they shall be treated with humanity. He is instructe'd, however, at 
the same time, to give that Government the amplest assurances that 
the objects of the United States are such, and such only, as I have 
indicated, and that the expedition is friendly and peaceful. Notwith- 
standing the jealousy with w-hich the Governments of eastern Asia 
regard all overtures from foreigners, I am not without hopes of a 
beneficial result of the expedition. Should it be crowned with success, 
the advantages will not be confined to the United States, but, as in the 
case of China, will be equally enjoyed by all the other maritime powers. 
I have much satisfaction in stating that in all the steps preparatory 
to this expedition the Government of the United States has been 
materially aided by the good offices of the King of the Netherlands, 
the only European power having any commercial relations with Japan. 
In passing from this survey of our foreign relations, I invite the 
attention of Congress to the condition of that Department of the 
Government to which this branch of the public business is intrusted. 
Our intercourse wdth foreign powers has of late years greatly in- 
creased, both in consequence of our own growth and the introduction 
of m.any new states into the family of nations. In this way the Depart- 
ment of State has become overburdened. It has by the recent estab- 
lishment of the Department of the Interior been relieved of some 
portion of the domestic business. If the residue of the business of that 
kind — such as the distribution of Congressional documents, the 
keeping, publishing, and distribution of the laws of the United States, 
the execution of the copyright law, the subject of reprieves and 
pardons, and some other subjects relating to interior administration — 
phould be transferred from the Department of State, it would un- 



Millard Fillmore. 345 

questionably be for the benefit of the public service. I would also 
suggest that the building appropriated to the State Department is not 
fireproof; that there is reason to think there are defects in its con- 
struction, and that the archives of the Government in charge of the 
Department, with the precious collections of the manuscript papers 
of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and Monroe, are ex- 
posed to destruction by fire. A similar remark may be made of the 
buildings appropriated to the War and Navy Departments. 

We live in an age of progress, and ours is emphatically a country 
of progress. Within the last half century the number of States in this 
Union has nearly doubled, the population has almost quadrupled, and 
our boundaries have been extended from the Mississippi to the Pacific. 
Our territory is checkered over with railroads and furrowed with 
canals. The inventive talent of our country is excited to the highest 
pitch, and the numerous applications for patents for valuable improve- 
ments distinguish this age and this people from all others. The 
genius of one American has enabled our commerce to move against 
wind and tide and that of another has annihilated distance in the 
transmission of intelligence. The whole country is full of enterprise. 
Our common schools are diffusing intelligence among the people and 
our industry is fast accumulating the comforts and luxuries of life. 
This is in part owing to our peculiar position, to our fertile soil and 
comparatively sparse population; but much of it is also owing to the 
popular institutions under which we live, to the freedom which every 
man feels to engage in any useful pursuit according to his taste or 
inclination, and to the entire confidence that his person and property 
will be protected by the laws. But whatever may be the cause of this 
unparalleled growth in population, intelligence, and wealth, one thing 
is clear — that the Government must keep pace with the progress of 
the people. It must participate in their spirit of enterprise, and while 
it exacts obedience to the laws and restrains all unauthorized invasions 
of the rights of neighboring states, it should foster and protect home 
industry and lend its powerful strength to the improvement of such 
means of intercommunication as are necessary to promote our internal 
commerce and strengthen the ties which bind us together as a people. 



346 History of the United States. 



LIFE OF MILLARD FILLMORE. 

MILLARD FILLMORE was born in Summer Hill, N. Y., 
February 7, 1800. He was son of Nathaniel Fillmore and 
Phoebe Millard. His early years were spent on his father's 
farm, attending a country school in the winter and working on the 
farm in the summer. He afterward taught school and later studied 
law. In 1826 he married Miss Abigail Powers, a year later was 
admitted to the bar, and soon after became counselor before the 
Supreme Court. He established himself in Bufifalo in 1830 and gained 
a large and successful practice. He served three terms in the legis- 
lature of his State, and while there brought about the act for abolish- 
ment of imprisonment for debt, which passed in 1831. He was elected 
to Congress in 1832 and served one term. In 1836 he was re-elected 
and returned until 1842, when he declined a renomination. He was 
comptroller of the State of New York in 1847, ^"^ was nominated by 
the Whigs for Vice-President on the ticket with General Taylor In 
1848. He was elected the following November, and upon the death 
of President Taylor, became President July 10. 1850. His wife having 
died soon after he left the White House, he married Caroline C. 
Mcintosh, who survived him. While in Rome, he was nominated for 
the Presidency in 1856 by the Whigs and ran against Buchanan who 
was elected. He founded the Bufifalo Historical Society. He traveled 
again in Europe in 1866. He died March 8, 1874, at Buffalo, N. Y., 
and was buried there in Forest Lawn Cemetery, 



Franklin Pierce. 



347 




HOME OF FRANKLIN PIERCE, AT CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



FRANKLIN PIERCE, THE GREAT EXPANSIONIST. 



By Senator John T. Morgan, of Alabama. 



"C^ROM the birth of Franklin Pierce on the 23d of November, 1804, to his 
■^ election as President in November, 1853, a half century of American 
history was recorded, from wrhich has been developed another half century of 
growth in unforeseen movements that are a natural and logical result of our 
institutions of government, and of the genius of our people. 

Mr. Pierce's Administration marked the turning point in this National 
progress, which would be called a revolution, but for the fact that it was a 
proper logical development, in line with the purposes and principles that were 



348 History of the United States. 

the true reasons for the establishment of the Constitution. In the main, the 
discussion of the sovereignty of the several States was the engrossing political 
topic of the era that closed with his Administration of the Presidency. 

That discussion had two results, both logical, and, in combination, they were 
the most important that can ever flow from our peculiar form of government. 
The sovereign rights of the States brought the Southern States under arms, as 
independent States, to defend the rights of the people, relating to slavery, under 
the Constitution, and the Northern States into battle array, to sustain the 
principles stated in the Declaration of Independence. 

There was congruity in these opposing doctrines, and the doctrine of the 
Declaration of Independence won the battle. But, the victory would have 
converted the Republic into a consolidated autocracy, had not the sovereignty 
of the States come forth as the only basis of a reunited Republic. 

The sovereign States were in full exercise of their powers when the war 
ended, and they re-established the National Republic. Had they been dis- 
organized by the civil war, peace would have been impossible, on the basis of 
the Constitution of the United States. 

Thus the constitutional doctrine on which Mr. Pierce was elected President, 
that was so much discussed during his term, demonstrated that it would 
create civil war in the United States to expurgate a National evil and, at its 
close, would maintain the union of the States without causing revolution, or 
even a disturbance of the foundations of the National Government. 

This could happen again, with like results, but it never will occur. Yet, 
there stands forth in these facts the proudest demonstration of the power of 
the American Republic to heal its own wounds, however deep they may be, or 
however fatal they may seem to be. 

Mr. Pierce was defeated by Mr. Buchanan for renomination by the Demo- 
cratic party, for the Presidency, and disappeared from public life, leaving to his 
successor the task of avoiding, if possible, the conflict that then appeared to be 
unavoidable, between the Northern and Southern States. The door that led 
to the new era in American history stood ready to be opened. The forecast 
had been made of those immense results that are now realized, when Mr. 
Buchanan tried in vain to keep it closed, and to confine American develop- 
ment to the lines that had been, apparently, but not actually, prescribed for its 
exploitation in the infancy of the Republic. 

Conservatism, which meant resistance to the progress for which Congress 
is sponsor, was the party shiboleth of the Democracy and the creed of the 
silver-grey Whigs, but the pressure of a world-wide demand for the abolition 
of slavery, crushed the Whig party and divided the Democratic party into 



Franklin Pierce, 349 

warring factions. The mighty blow fell upon all, and crushed everything 
except the Constitution and the sovereignty of the States. 

Mr. Buchanan disapproved, to await the yet distant vindication to which his 
memory is justly entitled, and the Democratic party was consigned to a long, 
cold period of hibernation. Its time of resuscitation came when Johnson 
revived its doctrines, under power derived from its mortal enemy — the Re- 
publican party; and the period of its restoration as a living and militant power, 
came with the election of Cleveland to the Presidency, after twenty years of 
banishment from authority. 

In the new era, now arrived, but under the old principles of government, 
there is, again, a further discussion of questions that were up for examination 
when Mr. Pierce was President, and party lines are again being drawn on the 
new political map. 

Mr. Pierce strongly opposed the policy of internal improvements by Con- 
gress, but the practical question has silenced the theoretical dispute, and the 
debate on that subject has ended. Mr. Pierce opposed the fiscal bank bill, 
but the Civil war has substituted a National banking system for all the State 
banks of issue, and the Supreme Court has, virtually, decreed the perpetuity 
of the system, and no Democratic convention now disputes the necessity for 
National banks. 

Mr. Pierce favored the annexation of Texas, against a powerful opposition 
in his native New England. 

They accused, the expansionists and slaveholders of attempting to surrender 
the Republic to imperialism. He went into the army to fight for his principles, 
that were represented by the flag of his country, and won his way to the 
Presidency in the campaign against Mexico. Following this, and while he 
was President, a disputed boundary, between the United States and Mexico, 
led to the acquisition of a large area in Arizona and New Mexico, and this led 
to the construction of the transcontinental railroad. 

This march of progress was very grand. The problems of government and 
the control of the Indian tribes between the Mississippi and the Pacific ocean, 
were then far more difficult than any question that is now up for consideration 
in the possessions recently acquired from Spain. The distance from the 
center of power and the base of military supply was then much greater than the 
voyage to the Philippines is now, counted by days of travel. Mr. Pierce did 
not shrink from such a severe task, because he saw in it the opening to 
civilization and Republican Government of a vast region that would abound -n 
blessings to mankind. 

These are some of the points of outlook from the old era that have been 



350 History of the United States. 

reached in the new periods, without any deviation from lines of National 
policy that were established by Mr. Jefferson in the year that Mr. Pierce was 
born. This policy has never put the slightest strain upon our institutions of 
government and never will. 

Other interesting initiatives of our present wise and worthy policies in the 
Pacific ocean were planted during Mr. Pierce's Administration, as Democratic 
measures on Jefferson's plan. 

Through his great Secretary of State, William S. Marcy, he conducted the 
first commercial treaty with Japan, negotiated by Commodore Perry. That 
treaty opened the door of a real civilization to Japan, through which a light has 
entered a darkened nation, and within the life of a generation, has lifted that 
people into recognized equality with the great powers of the world. And the 
same broad and sagacious statesmanship has aided in civilizing and American- 
izing the Hawaiian Islands, and has gathered that people into the nurturing 
bosom of our Great Republic. 

A still broader and more generous policy was ordained in that Administration 
as to Cuba, in the Ostend conference, which has ripened into the noblest 
results of National benevolence, through the redemption of that fair island 
from the oppressions of the last and worst form of Bourbon despotism. 

These events were fixed in the wise councils of Mr. Pierce and his great 
Cabinet, and time has brought all of them into speedy realization. Such men 
were never afraid that our Government would be weakened by honest and 
generous efforts to extend the blessings of its influence and protection to 
oppressed peoples. 

In the second half of this century, the consummation of the work laid out 
in the first has been accomplished on the true lines of American policy, with- 
out any deviation from the strictest Democratic construction of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. 

The Cabinet of Mr. Pierce was composed of Marcy, Guthrie, Jefferson Davis, 
Dobbin, McLelland, James Campbell and Caleb Gushing, and was the peer of 
any Cabinet in American history. 

Some of the great measures of that administration were the settling of the 
Mexican boundary, the adjustment of the fishery questions with Great Britain, 
the repeal of the Missouri compromise, the organization of the territories of 
Kansas and Nebraska, and a treaty of commercial reciprocity with Great 
Britain, as to Canada. 

A notable incident to illustrate the spirit of that administration, was the 
dismissal of the British minister and the British consuls at New York, 
Philadelphia and Cincinnati, because of their complicity in the illegal enlist- 
ment of recruits in the British army for the Crimean v;ar. 



Franklin Pierce. 351 

No reproach has attended the history of that presidential term. Its work has 
been accepted and still stands as the law of the land in many wise measures, 
such as the reorganization of the consular and diplomatic service, the organiza- 
tion of the Court of Claims, and a retired list for the Navy. 

Mr. Pierce's life was fashioned in the company of excellent people, from his 
youth, and their influence was manifest in all his history. His college mates at 
Bowdoin College, where he graduated third in his class, were such men as John 
P. Hale, Prof. Calvin Stone, Sergeant Prentiss, Henry W. Longfellow, and 
Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

He was a " Jackson Democrat " in the legislature of New Hampshire, and 
in the House of Representatives. In 1837 lie was the youngest member of the 
Senate and resigned from that body in 1842. In 1845 he declined appointment 
by the Governor, to return to the Senate. In 1846 he declined the office of 
Attorney-General, tendered to him by President Polk. He declined a Demo- 
cratic nomination for Governor of New Hampshire. 

He went to the Mexican war as colonel of a regiment and was promoted to 
the rank of brigadier-general. In 1850 he presided over the Constitutional 
Convention of New Hampshire, and in 1852 was nominated for President, on 
the forty-ninth ballot, at Baltimore, over Douglas, Cass, Marcy, and 
Buchanan, and was elected by a strong majority. 

His political career was not marked by an aggressive ambition. He won 
success through the confidence of the country in his wisdom and patriotism. 
His views of the constitutional powers of the Federal Government were strict 
and conservative, but within those lines of construction his policies were 
aggressive and measured up to the full assertion of every power that was 
useful in promoting the influence and establishing the rights of the Great 
Republic. 

Mr. Pierce was thoroughly conscientious in his dealing with all questions 
and all men in the conduct of public afifairs, and abided by his convictions of 
duty on all occasions. The people recognized and valued these worthy motives 
in their criticism of his public career and considered the wisdom of his 
course without prejudice or excitement. The judgment of his contemporaries 
was that he was a great American President, and this is more than confirmed 
by the present generation who witness the splendid development of his 
policies relating to Cuba, Hawaii, and Japan, and the grand commercial, 
military and moral power that we are beginning to exert on both shores and 
in the islands of the Pacific ocean. 

It is now seen, as he saw it, that it strengthens the course of free govern- 
ment and makes its hold firmer upon the afifections of mankind to extend its 
blessings to all who can be taught to understand them. 



352 History of the United States 

Other Presidents, better endowed with brilliant talents, or having better 
opportunities to prove their powers, were greater than Mr. Pierce in the esteem 
and admiration of the world, but few of them have graven upon the history 
of the United States so clean a chart of the wonderful progress we have made 
in the last half of- this century. We have followed the lines of his policy until 
we have emerged upon that grand field of National development which was the 
hope of our fathers, that in the institutions of free government which they 
ordained, would be found peace, security and prosperity for our own people, 
and the ultimate redemption of millions of oppressed people throughout the 
world 



Franklin Pierce. 353 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1853-1857. 



By Franklin Pierce. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1 853. 

THE policy of my Administration will not be controlled by any 
timid forebodings of evil from expansion. Indeed, it is not to 
be disguised that our attitude as a nation and our position on 
the globe render the acquisition of certain possessions not within our 
jurisdiction eminently important for our protection, if not in the future 
essential for the preservation of the rights of commerce and the peace 
of the world. Should they be obtained, it will be through no grasping 
spirit, but with a view to obvious national interest and security, and 
in a manner entirely consistent with the strictest observance of 
national faith. 

To every theory of society or government, whether the offspring 
of feverish ambition or of morbid enthusiasm, calculated to dissolve 
the bonds of law and affection which unite us, I shall interpose a ready 
and stern resistance. I believe that involuntary servitude, as it exists 
in different States of this Confederacy, is recognized by the Constitu- 
tion. I believe that it stands like any other admitted right, and that 
the States where it exists are entitled to efficient remedies to enforce 
the constitutional provisions. I hold that the laws of 1850, commonly 
called the " compromise measures," are strictly constitutional and to 
be unhesitatingly carried into effect. I believe that the constituted 
authorities of this Republic are bound to regard the rights of the 
South in this respect as they would view any other legal and constitu- 
tional right, and that the laws to enforce them should be respected 
and obeyed, not with a reluctance encouraged by abstract opinions as 
to their propriety in a different state of society, but cheerfully and 
according to the decisions of the tribunal to which their exposition 
belongs. Such have been, and are. my convictions, and upon them I 
shall act. I fervently hope that the question is at rest, and that no 
sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement may again threaten the 
durability of our institutions or obscure the light of our prosperity. 



354 HisTOKV OF TiTE Untted States. 

The President has, with deep sorrow, received information that the 
Vice-President of the United States, William R. King, died on the 
i8th (April, 1853) instant at his residence in Alabama. 

In testimony of respect for eminent station, exalted character, and, 
liigher and above all station, for a career of public service and devotion 
to this Union which for duration and usefulness is almost without a 
parallel in the history of the Republic, the labors of the various 
Departments will be suspended. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 5, 1853. 

The act of Congress establishing the Smithsonian Institution pro- 
vided that the President of the United States and other persons therein 
designated should constitute an " establishment " by that name, and 
that the members should hold stated and special meetings for the 
supervision of the affairs of the Institution. The organization not 
having taken place, it seemed to me proper that it should be effected 
without delay. This has been done; and an occasion was thereby pre- 
sented for inspecting the condition of the Institution and appreciating 
its successful progress thus far and its high promise of great and 
general usefulness. 

The bill entitled "An act making a grant (May 3, 1854) of public 
lands to the several States for the benefit of indigent insane persons," 
which was presented to me on the 27th ultimo, has been maturely con- 
sidered, and is returned to the Senate, the h.ouse in whicli it originated, 
with a statement of the objections which have required me to with- 
hold from it my approval. 

In the performance of this duty, prescribed by the Constitution, I 
have been compelled to resist the deep sympathies of my own heart 
in favor of the humane purpose sought to be accomplished and to 
overcome the reluctance with which I vlissent from the conclusions of 
the two Houses of Congress, and present my own opinions in oppo- 
sition to the action of a co-ordinate branch of the Government which 
possesses so fully my confidence and respect. 

If in presenting my objections to this bill, I should say more than 
strictly belongs to the measure or is required for this discharge of my 
official obligation, let it be attributed to a sincere desire to justify my 
act before those whose good opinion I so highly value and to that 
earnestness which springs from my deliberate conviction that a strict 
adherence to the terms and purposes of the federal compact offers the 



Franklin Pierce. 355 

best, if not the only, security for the preservation of our blessed in- 
heritance of representative liberty. 

It can not be questioned that if Congress has power to make pro- 
vision for the indigent insane without the limits of this District it has 
the same power to provide for the indigent who are not insane, and 
thus to transfer to the Federal Government the charge of all the poor 
in all the States. It has the same power to provide hospitals and other 
local establishments for the care and cure of every species of human 
infirmity, and thus to assume all that duty of either public philanthropy 
or public necessity to the dependent, the orphan, the sick, or the needy 
which is now discharged by the States themselves or by corporate 
institutions or private endowments existing under the legislation of 
the States. The whole field of public beneficence is thrown open to 
the care and culture of the Federal Government. Generous impulses 
no longer encounter the limitations and control of our imperious 
fundamental law; for however worthy may be the present object in 
itself, it is only one of a class. It is not exclusively worthy of 
benevolent regard. Whatever considerations dictate sympathy for this 
particular object apply in like manner, if not in the same degree, to 
idiocy, to physical disease, to extreme destitution. 

The framers of the Constitution, in refusing to confer on the Federal 
Government any jurisdiction over these purely local objects, in my 
judgment manifested a wise forecast and broad comprehension of the 
true interests of these objects themselves. It is clear that public 
charities within the States can be efiticiently administered only by their 
authority. 



SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 4, 1854. 

Since the adjournment of Congress the ratifications of the treaty 
between the United States and Great Britain relative to coast fisheries 
and to reciprocal trade with the British North American Provinces 
have been exchanged, and some of its anticipated advantages are 
already enjoyed by us, although its full execution was to abide certain 
acts of legislation not yet fully performed. So soon as it was ratified 
Great Britain opened to our commerce the free navigation of the river 
St. Lawrence and to our fishermen unmolested access to the shores 
and bays, from which they had been previously excluded, on the 
coasts of her North American Provinces; in return for which she 



356 History of the United States. 

asked for the introduction free of duty into the ports of the United 
btates of the fish caught on the same coast by British fishermen. This 
being the compensation stipulated in the treaty for privileges of the 
highest importance and value to the United States, which were thus 
voluntarily yielded before it became effective, the request seemed to 
me to be a reasonable one; but it could not be acceded to from want 
of authority to suspend our laws imposing duties upon all foreign 
fish. In the meantime the Treasury Department issued a regulation 
for ascertaining the duties paid or secured by bonds on fish caught on 
the coasts of the British Provinces and brought to our markets by 
British subjects after the fishing grounds had been made fully accessible 
to the citizens of the United States. I recommend to your favorable 
consideration a proposition, which will be submitted to you, for 
authority to refund the duties and cancel the bonds thus received. 

The Provinces of Canada and New Brunswick have also anticipated 
the full operation of the treaty by legislative arrangements, re- 
spectively, to admit free of duty the products of the United States 
mentioned in the free list of the treaty; and an arrangement similar to 
that regarding British fish has been made for duties now chargeable 
on the products of those Provinces enumerated in the same free list 
and introduced therefrom into the United States, a proposition for 
refunding which will, in my judgment, be in like manner entitled to 
your favorable consideration. 

There is difference of opinion between the United States and Great 
Britain as to the boundary line of the Territory of Washington ad- 
joining the British possessions on the Pacific, which has already led 
to difficulties on the part of the citizens and local authorities of the 
two Governments. I recommend that provision be made for a com- 
mission, to be joined by one on the part of Her Britannic Majesty, for 
the purpose of running and establishing the line in controversy. 
Certain stipulations of the third and fourth articles of the treaty con- 
cluded by the United States and Great Britain in 1846, regarding 
possessory rights of the Hudsons Bay Company and property of ^he 
Pugets Sound Agricultural Company, have given rise to serious dis- 
putes, and it is important to all concerned that summary means of 
settling them amicably should be devised. I have reason to believe 
that an arrangement can be made on just terms for the extinguish- 
ment of the rights in question, embracing also the right of the Hud- 
sons Bay Company to the navigation of the river Columbia; and I, 
therefore, suggest to your consideration the expediency of making a 
contingent appropriation for that purpose. 




^^///^. cf^^S^ 



FOURTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 




TEMPERANCE CRAZE OF 1854, DURING FRANKLIN PIERCe'S ADMINISTRATION. 



4^*V 



M^ .- -S M 





te.\!1'i;ka.\le alitation of franklin pierces term. 



Franklin Pierce. 



359 



THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 3I, 1855. 

Denmark, while resisting our assertion of the freedom of the Baltic 
Sound and Belts, has indicated a readiness to make some new arrange- 
ment on the subject, and has invited the governments interested, in- 
cluding the United States, to be represented in a convention to as- 
semble for the purpose of receiving and considering a proposition 
which she intends to submit for the capitalization of the Sound dues 
and the distribution of the sum to be paid as commutation among the 
governments according to the respective proportions of their maritime 
commerce to and from the Baltic. I have declined, in behalf of the 
United States, to accept this invitation, for the most cogent reasons. 
One is that Denmark does not offer to submit to the convention the 
question of her right to levy the Sound dues. The second is that if 
the convention were arllowed to take cognizance of that particular 
question, still it would not be competent to deal with the great inter- 
national principle involved, which afreets the right in other cases of 
navigation and commercial freedom, as well as that of access to the 
Baltic. Above all, by the express terms of the proposition it is 
contemplated that the consideration of the Sound dues shall be com- 
mingled with and made subordinate to a matter wholly extraneous — 
the balance of power among the Governments of Europe. 

While, however, rejecting this proposition and insisting on the right 
of free transit into and from the Baltic, I have expressed to Den- 
mark a willingness on the part of the United States to share liberally 
with other powers in compensating her for any advantages which 
commerce shall hereafter derive from expenditures made by her for 
the improvement and safety of the navigation of the Sound or Belts. 

In the Territory of Kansas there have been acts prejudicial to good 
order, but as yet none have occurred under circumstances to justify 
the interposition of the Federal Executive. That could only be in 
case of obstruction to Federal law or of organized resistance to 
Territorial law, assuming the character of insurrection, which, if it 
should occur, it would be my duty promptly to overcome and suppress. 
I cherish the hope, however, that the occurrence of any such untoward 
event will be prevented by the sound sense of the people of the Terri- 
tory, who by its organic law, possessing the right to determine their 
own domestic institutions, are entitled while deporting themselves 
peacefully to the free exercise of that right, and must be protected in 
the enjoyment of it without interference on the part of the citizens of 
any of the States. 



360 History of the United States. 

When, recently, it became requisite to organize the Territories of 
Nebraska and Kansas, it was the natural and legitimate, if not the 
inevitable, consequence of previous events and legislation that the 
same great and sound principle which had already been applied to 
Utah and New Mexico should be applied to them — that they should 
stand exempt from the restrictions proposed in the act relative to 
the State of Missouri. 

These restrictions were, in the estimation of many thoughtful men, 
null from the beginning, unauthorized by the Constitution, contrary to 
the treaty stipulations for the cession of Louisiana, and inconsistent 
with the equality of these States. 

They had been stripped of all moral authority by persistent efforts 
to procure their indirect repeal through contradictory enactments. 
They had been practically abrogated by the legislation attending the 
organization of Utah, New Mexico, and Washington. If any vitality 
remained in them it would have been taken away, in effect, by the 
new Territorial acts in the form originally proposed to the Senate at 
the first session of the last Congress. It was manly and ingenuous, 
as well as patriotic and just, to do this directly and plainly, and thus 
relieve the statute book of an act which might be of possible future 
mjury, but of no possible future benefit; and the measure of its repeal 
was the final consummation and complete recognition of the principle 
that no portion of the United States shall undertake through assump- 
tion of the powers of the General Government to dictate the social 
institutions of any other portion. 

The scope and effect of the language of repeal were not left in 
doubt. It was declared in terms to be " the true intent and meaning 
of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to 
exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to 
form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, sub- 
ject only to the Constitution of the United States." 

The measure could not be withstood upon its merits alone. It 
was attacked with violence on the false or delusive pretext that it 
constituted a breach of faith. Never was objection m.ore utterly desti- 
tute of substantial justification. When before was it imagined by 
sensible men that a regulative or declarative statute, whether enacted 
ten or forty years ago, is irrepealable; that an act of Congress is 
above the Constitution? If, indeed, there were in the facts any cause 
to impute bad faith, it would attach to those only who have never 
ceased, from the time of the enactment of the restrictive provision to 



Franklin Pierce. 361 

the present day, to denounce and condemn it; who have constantly 
refused to complete it by needful supplementary legislation; who have 
spared no exertion to deprive it of moral force; who have themselves 
again and again attempted its repeal by the enactment of incompatible 
provisions, and who, by the inevitable reactionary effect of their own 
violence on the subject, awakened the country to perception of the 
true constitutional principle of leaving the matter involved to the 
discretion of the people of the respective existing or incipient States. 
It is not pretended that this principle or any other precludes the 
possibility of evils in practice, disturbed, as political action is liable 
to be, by human passions. No form of government is exempt from 
inconveniences; but in this case they are the result of the abuse, and 
not of the legitimate exercise, of the powers reserved or conferred in 
the organization of a Territory. They are not to be charged to the 
great principle of popular sovereignty. On the contrary, they dis- 
appear before the intelligence and patriotism of the people, exerting 
through the ballot-box their peaceful and silent but irresistible power. 
If the friends of the Constitution are to have another struggle, its 
enemies could not present a more acceptable issue than that of a 
State whose constitution clearly embraces " a republican form of gov- 
ernment " being excluded from the Union because its domestic in- 
stitutions may not in all respects comport with the ideas of what is 
wise and expedient entertained in some other State. Fresh from 
groundless imputations of breach of faith against others, men will ■ 
commence the agitation of this new question with indubitable viola- 
tion of an express compact between the independent sovereign powers 
of the United States and of the Republic of Texas, as well as of the 
older and equally solemn compacts which assure the equality of all 
the States. 

But deplorable as would be such a violation of compact in itself and 
in all its direct consequences, that is the very least of the evils in- 
volved. When sectional agitators shall have succeeded in forckig 
on this issue, can their pretensions fail to be met by counter pre- 
tensions? Will not different States be compelled, respectively, to meet 
extremes with extremes? And if either extreme carry its point, what 
is that so far forth but dissolution of the Union? If a new State, 
formed from the territory of the United States, be absolutely excluded 
from admission therein, that fact of itself constitutes the disruption of 
union between it and the other States. But the process of dissolution 
could not stop there. Would not a sectional decision producing such 



362 History of the United States. 

result by a majority of votes, either Northern or Southern, of necessity 
drive out the oppressed and aggrieved minority and place in presence 
of each other two irreconcilably hostile confederations? 

It is necessary to speak thus plainly of projects the offspring of 
that sectional agitation now prevailing in some of the States, which 
are as impracticable as they are unconstitutional, and which if per- 
severed in must and will end calamitously. It is either disunion and 
civil war or it is mere angry, idle, aimless disturbance of public peace 
and tranquillity. Disunion for wJiat? If the passionate rage of fa- 
naticism and partisan spirit did not force the fact upon our attention, 
it would be difficult to believe that any considerable portion of the 
people of this enlightened country could have so surrendered them- 
selves to a fanatical devotion to the supposed interests of the relatively 
few Africans in the United States as totally to abandon and disregard 
the interests of the 25,000,000 Americans; to trample under foot the 
injunctions of moral and constitutional obligation, and to engage in 
plans of vindictive hostility against those wdio are associated with 
them in the enjoyment of the common heritage of our national in- 
stitutions. 

Nor is it hostility against their fellow-citizens of one section of the 
Union alone. The interests, the honor, the duty, the peace, and the 
prosperity of the people of all sections are equally involved and im- 
periled in this question. And are patriotic men in any part of the 
Union prepared on such issue thus madly to invite all the consequen- 
ces of the forfeiture of their constitutional engagements? It is im- 
possible. The storm of frenzy and faction must inevitably dash itself 
in vain against the unshaken rock of the Constitution. I shall never 
doubt it. I know that the Union is stronger a thousand times than 
all the wild and chimerical schemes of social change which are gen- 
erated one after another in the unstable minds of visionary sophists 
and interested agitators. I rely confidently on the patriotism of the 
people, on the dignity and self-respect of the States, on the wisdom 
of Congress, and, above all, on the continued gracious favor of Al- 
m.'ghty God to maintain against all enemies, whether at home or 
abroad, the sanctity of the Constitution and the integrity of the 
Union. 



It is the undoubted right of the peaceable and orderly people of the 
Territory of Kansas to elect their own legislative body, make their own 



Franklin Pierce. 363 

laws, and regulate their own social institutions, without foreign or do- 
mestic molestation. Interference on the one hand to procure the 
abolition or prohibition of slave labor in the Territory has produced 
mischievous interference on the other for its maintenance or introduc- 
tion. One wrong begets another. Statements entirely unfounded, 
or grossly exaggerated, concerning events within the Territory are 
sedulously diffused through remote States to feed the flame of sec- 
tional animosity there, and the agitators there exert themselves inde- 
fatigably in return to encourage and stimulate strife within the Ter- 
ritory. 

The inflammatory agitation, of which the present is but a part, has 
for twenty years produced nothing save unmitigated evil, North and 
South. But for it the character of the domestic institutions of the 
future new State would have been a matter of too little interest to the 
inhabitants of the contiguous States, personally or collectively, to pro- 
duce among them any political emotion. Climate, soil, production, 
hopes of rapid advancement and the pursuit of happiness on the part of 
the settlers themselves, with good wishes, but with no interference 
from without, would have quietly determined the question which is 
at this time of such disturbing character. 

But we are constrained to turn our attention to the circumstances 
of embarrassment as they now exist. It is the duty of the people of 
Kansas to discountenance every act or purpose of resistance to its laws. 
Above all, the emergency appeals to the citizens of the States, and 
especially of those contiguous to the Territory, neither by intervention 
of nonresidents in elections nor by unauthorized ntititary force to at- 
tempt to encroach upon or usurp the authority of the inhabitants of the 
Territory. 

No citizen of our country should permit himself to forget that he is 
a part of its Government and entitled to be heard in the determination 
of its policy and its measures, and that therefore the highest consid- 
eration of personal honor and patriotism require him to maintain by 
whatever of power or influence he may possess the integrity of the laws 
of the Republic. 

Entertaining these views, it will be my imperative duty to exert the 
whole power of the Federal Executive to support public order in the 
Territory; to vindicate its laws, whether Federal or local, against all 
attempts of organized resistance, and so to protect its people in the 
establishment of their own institutions, undisturbed by encroachment 
from without, and in the full enjoyment of the rights of self-govern- 



364 History of the United States. 

ment assured to them by the Constitution and the organic act of Con- 
gress. 

Although serious and threatening disturbances in the Territory of 
Kansas, announced to me by the governor in December last, were 
speedily quieted without the effusion of blood and in a satisfactory 
manner, there is, I regret to say, reason to apprehend that disorders 
will continue to occur there, with increasing tendency to violence, 
until some decisive measure be taken to dispose of the question itself 
which constitutes the inducement or occasion of internal agitation 
and of external interference. 

This, it seems to me, can best be accomplished by providing that 
when the inhabitants of Kansas may desire it and shall be of sufficient 
number to constitute a State, a convention of delegates, duly elected 
by the qualified voters, shall assemble to frame a constitution, and 
thus to prepare through regular and lawful means for its admission 
into the Union as a State. 

I respectfully recommend the enactment of a law to that effect. 

I recommend also that a special appropriation be made to defray 
any expense which may become requisite in the execution of the 
laws or the maintenance of public order in the Territory of Kansas. 



Whereas indications exist February 11, 1856, that public tran- 
quillity and the supremacy of law in the Territory of Kansas are en- 
dangered by the reprehensible acts or purposes of persons, both within 
and without the same, who propose to direct and control its political 
organization by force. It appearing that combinations have been 
formed therein to resist the execution of the Territorial laws, and thus 
in effect subvert by violence all present constitutional and legal author- 
ity; it also appearing that persons residing without the Territory, but 
near its borders, contemplate armed intervention in the affairs thereof; 
it also appearing that other persons, inhabitants of remote States, are 
collecting money, engaging men, and providing arms for the same 
purpose; and it further appearing that combinations within the Terri- 
tory are endeavoring, by the agency of emissaries and otherwise, 
to induce individual States of the Union to intervene in the affairs 
thereof, in violation of the Constitution of the United States ; and 

Whereas all such plans for the determination of the future institu- 
tions of the Territory, if carried into action from within the same, will 
constitute the fact of insurrection, and if from without that of in- 



Franklin Pierce. 365 

vasive aggression, and will in either case justify and require the for- 
cible interposition of the whole power of the General Government, as 
well to maintain the laws of the Territory as those of the Union: 

Now, therefore, I, Franklin Pierce, President of the United States, 
do issue this my proclamation to command all persons engaged in 
unlawful combinations against the constituted authority of the Ter- 
ritory of Kansas or of the United States to disperse and retire peace- 
ably to their respective abodes, and to warn all such persons that any 
attempted insurrection in said Territory or aggressive intrusion into 
the same will be resisted not only by the employment of the local 
militia, but also by that of any available forces of the United States, 
to the end of assuring immunity from violence and full protection to 
the persons, property, and civil rights of all peaceable and law-abiding 
inhabitants of the Territory. 

If, in any part of the Union, the fury of faction or fanaticism, in- 
flamed into disregard of the great principles of popular sovereignty 
which, under the Constitution, are fundamental in the whole structure 
of our institutions is to bring on the country the dire calamity of an 
arbitrament of arms in that Territory, it shall be between lawless 
violence on the one side and conservative force on the other, wielded 
by legal authority of the General Government. 

I call on the citizens, both of adjoining and of distant States, to ab- 
stain from unauthorized intermeddling in the local concerns of the 
Territory, admonishing them that its organic law is to be executed 
with impartial justice, that all individual acts of illegal interference will 
incur condign punishment, and any endeavor to intervene by or- 
ganized force will be firmly withstood. 

I invoke all good citizens to promote order by rendering obedience 
to the law, to seek remedy for temporary evils by peaceful means, to 
discountenance and repulse the counsels and the instigations of agi- 
tators and of disorganizers, and to testify their attachment to their 
country, their pride in its greatness, their appreciation of the blessings 
they enjoy, and their determination that republican institutions shall 
not fail in their hands by co-operating to uphold the majesty of the 
laws and to vindicate the sanctity of the Constitution. 

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 2, 1856. 

Imputed irregularities in the elections had in Kansas, like oc- 
casional irregularities of the same description in the States, were be- 
yond the sphere of action of tlie Executive. But incidents of actual 



366 History of the United States. 

violence or of organized obstruction of law, pertinaciously renewed 
from time to time, have been met as they occurred by such means as 
were available and as the circumstances required, and nothing of this 
character now remains to afifect the general peace of the Union. The 
attempt of a part of the inhabitants of the Territory to erect a revolu- 
tionary government, though sedulously encouraged and supplied with 
pecuniary aid from active agents of disorder in some of the States, has 
completely failed. Bodies of armed men, foreign to the Territory, 
have been prevented from entering or compelled to leave it; predatory 
bands, engaged in acts of rapine under cover of the existing political 
disturbances, have been arrested or dispersed, and every well-disposed 
person is now enabled once more to devote himself in peace to the pur- 
suits of prosperous industry, for the prosecution of which he under- 
took to participate in the settlement of. the Territory. 

It affords me unmingled satisfaction thus to announce the peace- 
ful condition of things in Kansas, especially considering the means 
to which it was necessary to have recourse for the attainment of the 
end, namely, the employment of a part of the military force of the 
United States. The withdrawal of that force from its proper duty of 
defending the country against foreign foes or the savages of the 
frontier to employ it for the suppression of domestic insurrection is, 
when the exigency occurs, a matter of the most earnest solicitude. 
On this occasion of imperative necessity it has been done with the 
best results, and my satisfaction in the attainment of such results by 
such means is greatly enhanced by the consideration that, through the 
wisdom and energy of the present executive of Kansas and the pru- 
dence, firmness, and vigilance of the military officers on duty there 
tranquillity has been restored without one drop of blood having been 
shed in its accomplishment by the forces of the United States. 

The restoration of comparative tranquillity in that Territory fur- 
nishes the means of observing calmly and appreciating at their just 
value the events which have occurred there and the discussions of 
which the government of the Territory has been the subject. 

We perceive that controversy concerning its future domestic insti- 
tutions was inevitable; that no human prudence, no form of legislation, 
no wisdom on the part of Congress, could have prevented it. 

It is idle to suppose that the particular provisions of their organic 
law were the cause of agitation. Those provisions were but the occa- 
sion, or the pretext, of an agitation which was inherent in the nature 
of things. Congress legislated upon the subject in such terms as 

























a: .. 


/), 


,^ , / 


,, / 


A/ 


y A 


y.^Aj. 




• 






/ 


/;, . / 


/ / / !> ^/ A^c f y / ■ 






// 








■ 'f 


■ / ' ■' . ' '^ 


■ ^ y. 


.c./r,-y //{^.A . 






/ 






//, 




y/y. 


( , /'/At ,A/Ai't^ 




■<-. 






, , < 




■;' .. ,.. /■. 


A, a'/. 


.. .,' .-,,../,.,.;. 


■ / A,. ., 


/V .-^ , ' 




/ 


/ 




' ■ ' / ' 


A..-../,,^ ;^-, „.„ 


/A, 


//,., 


/.r^ ./, 


\ A 




A ■ ^ '. . 


/ 


/ 


A /a. rAl^.^^A^ 


, ■ / 




/ . • ^V , - 




/ 


, , .■ -, 


^ / , , 


/A. , 


/, . ., J .A, Ac 


. c-> . . 




,,- ^ 






. ■ ■ . , 


. , ' /, 


.A. K,_ 


. .-.aA-,,^. 




■//. 


■/ .. /,. 






/ 




'/., .. 


. .AA,Ao.<: .... 


/n. ■ 




'/A. 


//, 




. " .A 


r .A r'A 


,,...A 


^yi ,-<r,->/ -<^ <• ^i 


/A. 


. , v/ 


, / 


/-' 










■....■ . V. /^ 


y,-. ' 


''7/ 


, .• //,. 






' , . .' 


, , ' . ^ 




/ , ,-' . 


,i 'i,/ 


/'■ 


/.. ... 


^, /■- 


/ 












/. 


A /, /[ 


.-' y < 


, ^ ■/ / 


/A. A 


, . ^ / , / /(■' 


/' ' ' ■ 


, {. , / '/^Jr'c^r^ 


r Y /> 


X, . 


^^A , / 




.,.A . 


: ^'^^A 


/,. /A.. /^..;^^,A -/a:/ 


tf^lU 


/"'' 


-'■/' 


. ,c 




. ■// .. 


/aaV/: 


/A... A 


A AA.A .< r. 


.., / 




t 


" ■ 


'-'..Ar. 


•-. 






. . ■ . ■ ' - 


.6^. 


'" -' 




'" 


/. 


'■/■ ■ 


i 







I'IRST PAGE OF PRESIDENT PIERCE'S PROCLAMATION 
AGAINST FILIBUSTERING EXPEDITIONS TO CUBA. 



' 


















/■ 


/, 






/ ' - 




/a 


/ ,■ 




/ 




-' ^"'r 


// 




/ 










- 


^ ,-./. 


, , . / /' . 




V 




- 


/ 




-• ■■ , / 


;< . 


. /^':. 


/ " ■ ' 














"' •■ 




_/ 


/. , ■' 






, ■ , ■ - , . 


,-^ ... 


^■'A y 




..... 


- 


/■.<■- .-. , 


/,/;,... .. 


.,,. 


/,/ - i' 


^ , . . 


■' . •' 


: , -' /''.■ 


... 


....,,. 


-<- 




// / •,, •■"■ 


//' 


;, X 


', .-v.., . ,■ 


-<,, ,' 


.,. ■ . 


/■: 


^ 




.,.,,.■ 








"-^ * M ' 


. / 


. .K,. 


■/ 1^ 


/T ^. 


^ ,^, 


/ 


u> . ■' // ■ 








f ,,: 


/ 


;/ 


/, y/Al 


/:l, 


. , / ., .-r' 


>■ r ^1 ■■■ ■' 




.//, 


.-/.■.... 




.. /-;,'■ 


.'.-. 


,-... ( 


y. 


y,/r{ 


it//\rru-</..' 


'\ 


^/ ,. ,^ 


■ . . . -^ , //. • 


. / " 


'/ 


/A. 


A,./. 


,'/ 


/A^y.> , 


.n/(\r 




'Z/. . 




. , f, c 


/■- 


/ /^ 


, //., 


.;.. 


...:.//, 


,:..''//.. 


.A 


/' 


,;///;,^. 


(■-U . 


' /'■ , : ^ 


.■ /'. 


. . . .z^- 


,/;<:- 


,,./>;■;.. ^- 


/jr r, ^//i ^ r 


...., 


/ 


A,/,,.,.. 


/ 


■ A... 


■/^-/ ,. z/:/^-..' 




/ : , 


/ 


^, . ^z- 




'/ ... 


,r /a.- 


, V, 




/< 


y.;^ ,/ ,. " 








V^/,/. 


.^. /' 


f ,' /, V,. 


./, 


, ./;^;. 


&:, 


/ 1 








,K'.. .•.^... . 


., //. 


'/■ 


"^ '/ 


. .'<- 


,• y -y 








.... //.. 




./ ,v../?/ /^/., 


./>. 


-y ,,„.< 


f-^uY/C . 


:^. 


,y^;.<^... 




&■ • 








■ '4^^.',{. 


.^^t Cf I C7/ 


/f.,./. 


/, 


/e><: 











LAST PAGE OF PROCLAMATION AGAINST FILIBUSTERING 
BY PRESIDENT PIERCE. 



Franklin Pierce. 367 

were most consonant with the principle of popular sovereignty which 
underlies our Government. It could not have legislated otherwise 
without doing violence to another great principle of our institutions — 
the imprescriptible right of equality of the several States. 

We perceive also that sectional interests and party passions have 
been the great impediment to the salutary operation of the organic 
principles adopted and the chief cause of the successive disturbances 
in Kansas, The assumption that because in the organization of the 
Territories of Nebraska and Kansas Congress abstained from impos- 
ing restraints upon them to which certain other Territories had been 
subject, therefore disorders occurred in the latter Territory, is em- 
phatically contradicted by the fact that none have occurred in the 
former. Those disorders were not in consequence, in Kansas, of the 
freedom of self-government conceded to that Territory by Congress, 
but of unjust interference on the part of persons not inhabitants of 
the Territory. Such interference, wherever it has exhibited itself by 
acts of insurrectionary character or of obstruction to process of law, 
has been repelled or suppressed by all the means which the Constitu- 
tion and the laws place in the hands of the Executive. 



LIFE OF FRANKLIN PIERCE. 

FRANKLIN PIERCE was born November 22>, 1804, in Hills- 
boro, N. H. He was the son of Benjamin Pierce, a major in the 
Revolutionary War, and twice governor of New Hampshire. 
His mother was Anna Kendrick. Franklin Pierce had a careful early 
training and excellent educational advantages. He graduated from 
Bowdoin College in 1824. Among his college friends were Longfel- 
low and Hawthorne. He became a lawyer in 1827 and began to prac- 
tice in Hillsboro. He was a warm supporter of the Jackson Adminis- 
tration. He represented his district in Congress four years, beginning 
in 1833. He was married in 1834 to Jane Means Appleton, daughter 
of the president of Bowdoin College. He was sent to the United States 
Senate in 1837, but resigned in 1842. A year later he moved from 
Hillsboro to Concord. In 1845 he declined the appointment of x^t- 
torney-General of the LTnited States tendered by President Polk. He 
served through the Mexican War, enlisting as a private in a volunteer 
company formed at Concord, but was soon after made colonel of the 



368 History of the United States. 

Ninth Regiment of Infantry, and was commissioned March 3, 1847, 
brigadier-general in the volunteer army, and soon set out for the scene 
of activity. Before the battle of Molino del Rey, he was appointed 
one of the commissioners to effect peace, a truce having been declared 
for that purpose. This failed, and the fighting went on. He took 
part in the battle and remained on duty until peace was declared, when 
he resigned his commission and returned home. For his gallantry in 
this war the State of New Hampshire presented him with a sword. 
He was the Democratic candidate for President in 1852, was elected 
in November, and inaugurated March 4, 1853. On his retirement 
from the White House he returned to his home at Concord, where he 
died October 8, 1869, and was buried there. 



James Buchanan. 



369 







HOME OF JAMES BUCHANAN AT WHEATLAND. PENNSYLVANIA. 



CHAPTER XV. 



JAMES BUCHANAN'S WISDOM AND PATRIOTISM. 



By General Horatio C. King, LL. D. 



T N 1858, when I received my diploma from Dickinson College, two grad- 
-*■ uates of that venerable and honored seat of learning held the highest 
ofiicial positions in the United States, that of President and Chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court. James Buchanan was in the White House and Roger B. 
Taney was tn the Capitol. No high officials in this country were ever more 
bitterly assailed by partisan rancor or more unjustly maligned. Both had 
an almost idolatrous reverence for the Constitution. Taney, who ranks next 



370 History of the United States. 

to Chief Justice Marshall in legal acumen, interpreted, in the Dred Scott 
decision, the Constitution as he found it and in the light of the precedents of 
Marshall. For this he incurred unmerited odium. The Constitution, which 
recognized slaves as chattels, was alone responsible. Buchanan in like manner 
held that while he could find in the Constitution no authority to coerce the 
States as States, he did assert and execute as far as was in his power the 
authority of the President to enforce the Federal laws against those in revolt. 

My home was in Washington and I returned from college to become , a 
student at law in the ofifice of Edwin M. Stanton, the Assistant Attorney-General 
and afterward the great War Secretary in President Lincoln's Cabinet. I had 
frequent opportunity to see President Buchanan, and also to imbibe from 
others very near to him, my impressions of him. My father was acting and 
postmaster-general during the closing months of Mr. Buchanan's Administra- 
tion and from him, as well as from Mr. Stanton, I learned much of the motives 
which controlled the course of the President in the most trying period in the 
history of the Republic since the days of the Revolution. 

Mr. Buchanan came to the Presidency through gradual promotion; first the 
Pennsylvania legislature, then Congress, next minister to Russia, then the 
United States Senate for three terms, next Secretary of State, then minister to 
England from which he returned to assume the reins of government. 

It was at his inauguration that I first saw him. His personal appearance 
was striking. He was a little over six feet in height, broad shouldered and 
admirably proportioned; dignified without austerity, gracious to all and 
especially courteous to women. His complexion was fair, his fo"i-ehead m.assive; 
he wore no beard, while his abundant silky white hair, scrupulous neatness in 
dress, with the old-fashioned standing collar and large white cravat stamped 
him as a gentleman of the old school. His eyes were blue, one near and one 
far-sighted, because of which defect he habitually inclined his head to one side 
to favor the better e3'e. He was essentially a courtly and handsome man, and 
reached more nearly my ideal of how a President should look than any 
President I have seen. His moral character and personal virtue were above 
reproach and, so far as I know, were never assailed. He was of an eminently 
religious turn and was always a regular attendant at the Presbyterian church 
in Washington, although it was not until late in life that he formally connected 
himself with any church. It is related by Reverend William M. Paxton, D. D., 
pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in New York city how this came 
about. While both were at Bedford Springs, Pa., in i860, Mr. Buchanan sent 
for Dr. Paxton and conversed with him freely on the subject of religion, and 
then and there declared his intention to make a public profession upon his 
retirement from the presidential chair. When urged to take the step at once, 



James Buchanan. 371 

his reply was, with deep feeling: " I must delay for the honor of religion. If 
I were to join the church now, they would say hypocrite from Maine to 
Georgia." He carried out his purpose immediately upon his retirement and 
return to his home in Lancaster, Pa. 

Of his scrupulous integrity and exactness in public affairs, I recall this 
incident. During his Administration, the revenue cutter " Harriet Lane," 
named in honor of his niece, an uncrowned queen, was sent to Washington. 
Howell Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury, seized the opportunity to invite all 
the public officials and many prominent citizens in Washington to an excursion 
on this recent and handsomest addition to the revenue marine. The trip down 
the Potomac proved a brilliant success. After it was over, Mr. Buchanan, 
who did not go, desired to know who was to foot the bill. The Secretary was 
somewhat embarrassed when informed that it must not be paid from the Treas- 
ury, but that he, the President, would, if necessary, draw his own check for the 
amcmnt. Mr. Cobb managed the matter without taking it from the public 
funds. It would be interesting if Congress would now institute an inquiry 
how frequently this precedent has since been ignored, and how many millions 
have been squandered in official junketing. 

Space is not given me to speak of Mr. Buchanan's attitude after the acts of 
secession were .committed. It is necessary only to say that a purer or more 
loyal patriot did not exist, but he had an antagonistic and partly disloyal 
Congress which absolutely refused to heed his messages of December, i860, and 
January, 1861, and provide him the men and means to stamp out the rising 
and most formidable insurrection. It alone had the constitutional right to do 
so.- The President was at all times ready to execute the laws, but Congress 
neglected to exercise its constitutional prerogative. The little regular army 
was scattered along our exposed frontier. It was with much difficulty that the 
President could get a regular battery to Washington in time for the inaugura- 
tion. The Capitol was filled with secessionists, organized and ready to over- 
throw the Government. The district militia hastily formed was a mob. The 
North was greatly divided and New York city peculiarly so, with scarcely a 
prominent newspaper that was not opposed to a civil conflict. Mr. Buchanan, 
therefore, as did Mr. Lincoln for six weeks after his inauguration, bent all his 
energies to a peaceful solution of the difficulties. He, as very few did, appre- 
ciated the extent and horror of an internecine struggle, and the last words he 
said to my father as he bade him farewell at the depot, was the expression of 
his great relief that his Administration has closed without bloodshed. The 
gun at Sumter which consolidated the North and West made it easy for Mr. 
Lincoln to meet force with force. Says James Buchanan Henry, his faithful 
v^'ard and private secretary: " Mr. Buchanan, to the day of his death, ex- 



372 



History of the United States. 



pressed to me his abiding conviction that the American people would, in due 
time, come to regard his course as the only one which at that time promised 
any hope of saving the Nation from a bloody and devastating war, and would 
recognize the integrity and wisdom of his course in administering the Govern- 
ment for the good of the whole people, whether North or South. His con- 
viction on this point was so genuine that he looked forward serenely to the 
future, and never seemed to entertain a misgiving or a doubt." And they will. 

As to his constancy there can be no question. In looking over the minutes 
of the Union Philosophical Society at Dickinson, I found these entries: 

" Constitution signed by James Buchanan, March 29, 1801." 

" March 25, 1803, Mr. Buchanan read an essay on ' The dangers of the fair 
sex.' " 

" November 24, 1803. On application of James Buchanan, he was honorably 
dismissed and a diploma granted him." 

" November 24, 1803, Mr. Buchanan read an essay on ' The influence of the 
fair sex.' " 

His partiality for the society of refined ladies continued throughout his life, 
the trend of which was wholly changed by a sad event. About 1816, after a 
very successful advancement in the law, he returned from the legislature with 
the determination to thereafter devote himself exclusively to his profession and 
eschew politics altogether. He then became engaged to a beautiful youn^^ 
girl, who is described as of singularly attractive and gentle disposition but 
retiring and sensitive. This relation continued for some time, with the ap- 
proval of her parents, when she suddenly broke ofif the engagement. This was 
in the latter part of the summer of 1819. In December the young lady died 
suddenly while on a visit to Philadelphia. It is now known that the separation 
was due to a misunderstanding on the part of the lady, a lover's quarrel which 
would have ended in reconciliation had she lived. The occurrence made a deep 
and lasting wound. Mr. Buchanan remained forever true to his first and only 
love, plunging again into politics to seek relief from his great sorrow. 



\ 



James Buchanan. 373 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1857-1861. 



By James Buchanan. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1857. 

THE whole Territorial question being settled upon the principle 
of popular sovereignty — a principle as ancient as free gov- 
ernment itself — everything of a practical nature has been decided. 
No other question remains for adjustment, because all agree that 
under the Constitution slavery in the States is beyond the reach of any 
human power except that of the respective States themselves wherein 
it exists. May we not, then, hope that the long agitation on this sub- 
ject is approaching its end, and that the geographical parties to which 
it has given birth, so much dreaded by the Father of his Country, will 
speedily become extinct? Most happy will it be for the country when 
the public mind shall be diverted from this question to others of more 
pressing and practical importance. Throughout the whole progress 
of this agitation, which has scarcely known any intermission for more 
than twenty years, whilst it has been productive of no positive 
to any human being it has been the prolific source of gr&St~evils to the 
master, to the slave, and to the whole country. I^:^as alienated and 
estranged the people of the sister States froi^rTeach other, and has 
even seriously endangered the very existen^^of the Union. Nor has 
the danger yet entirely ceased. Undep'^r system there is a remedy 
for all mere political evils in the soi«T^ sense and sober judgment of the 
people. Time is a great corpective. Political subjects which but a 
few years ago excited and. exasperated the public mind have passed 
away and are now neairly forgotten. But this question of domestic 
slavery is of far gra\^er importance than any mere political question, 
because should the agitation continue it may eventually endanger the 
personal safety of a large portion of our countrymen where the insti- 
tution exists. In that event no form of government, however admir- 
able in itself and however productive of material benefits, can compen- 
sate for the loss of peace and domestic security around the family altar. 
I.e; every Union-loving man, therefore, exert his best influence to 
suppress this agitation, which since the recent legislation of Congress 
is without any legitimate object. 



374 History of the United States. 

first annual message, december 8, 1857. 

Our difficulties with New Granada which a short time since bore 
so threatening an aspect, are, it is to be hoped, in a fair train of set- 
tlement in a manner just and honorable to both parties. 

The Isthmus of Central America, including that of Panama, is the 
groat highway between the Atlantic and Pacific over which a large 
portion of the commerce of the world is destined to pass. The 
United States are more deeply interested than any other nation in 
preserving the freedom and security of ail the communications across 
this Isthmus. It is our duty, therefore, to take care that they shall not 
be interrupted either by invasions from our own country or by wars 
between the independent 'States of Central America. Under our treaty 
with New Granada of the 12th December 1846, we are bound to 
guarantee the neutrality of the Isthmus of Panama, through which 
th^ Panama Railroad passes, " as well as the rights of sovereignty and 
property which New Granada has and possesses over the said ter- 
ritory." This obligation is founded upon equivalents granted by the 
treaty to the Government and people of the United States. 

Under these circumstances I recommend to Congress the passage 
of an act authorizing the President, in case of necessity, to employ the 
land and naval forces of the United States to carry into efifect this 
guaranty of neutrality and protection. I also recommend similar leg- 
islation l9i th^ security of any other route across the Isthmus in which 
we may acquire ^^.7. interest by treaty. 

A Territorial govci^'pn^ent was established for Utah by act of Con- 
gress approved the 9th September, 1850, and the Constitution and 
laws of the United States w^re thereby extended over it " so far as 
the same or any provisions thereof may be applicable." This act pro- 
vided for the appointment by the President, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate, of a governor, who was to be ex off.cio superin- 
tendent of Indian afifairs, a secretary, three\iudges of the supreme 
court, a marshal, and a district attorney. Subsequent acts provided 
for the appointment of the officers necessary to extend our land and 
our Indian system over the Territory. Brigham Young was ap- 
pointed the first governor on the 20th September, 1850, and has held 
the office ever since. Whilst Governor Young has been both gov- 
ernor and superintendent of Indian affairs throughout this period, he 
has been at the same time the head of the church called the Latter- 
day Saints, and professes to govern its members and dispose of their 




FIFTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



/ 




CONFEDERATE MONUMENT AT RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



James Buchanan. 377 

property by direct inspiration and authority from the Ahiiighty. His 
power has been, therefore, absokite over both church and state. 

The people of Utah ahnost exclusively belong to this church, and 
believing with a fanatical spirit that he is governor of the Territory 
by divine appointment, they obey his commands as if these were direct 
revelations from Heaven. If, therefore, he chooses that his govern- 
ment shall come into collision with the Government of the United 
States, the members of the Mormon Church will yield implicit obe- 
dience to his will. Unfortunately, existing facts leave but little doubt 
that such is his determination. Without entering upon a minute his- 
tory of occurrences, it is sufficient to say that all the officers of the 
United States, judicial and executive, with the single exception of 
two Indian agents, have found it necessary for their own personal 
safety to withdraw from the Territory, and there no longer remains 
any Government in Utah but the despotism of Brigham Young. This 
being the condition of afifairs in the Territory, I could not mistake 
the path of duty. As Chief Executive Magistrate I was bound to 
restore the supremacy of the Constitution and laws within its limits. 
In order to effect this purpose, I appointed a new governor and other 
Federal officers for Utah and sent with them a military force for their 
protection and to aid as a posse comitatns in case of need in the execu- 
tion of the laws. 

With the religious opinions of the Mormons, as long as they re- 
mained mere opinions, however deplorable in themselves and revolting 
to the moral and religious sentiments of all Qiristendom, I had no 
right to interfere. Actions alone, when in violation of the Consti- 
tution and laws of the United States, become the legitimate subjects 
for the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate. My instructions to Gov- 
ernor Gumming have therefore been framed in strict accordance with 
these principles. At their date a hope was indulged that no necessity 
might exist for employing the military in restoring and maintaining 
the authority of the law, but this hope has now vanished. Governor 
Young has by proclamation declared his determination to maintain his 
power by force, and has already committed acts of hostility against the 
United States. Unless he should retrace his steps the Territory of 
Utah will be in a state of open rebellion. He has committed these acts 
of hostility notwithstanding Major Van Vliet, an officer of the Army, 
sent to Utah by the Commanding General to purchase provisions for 
the troops, had given him the strongest assurances of the peaceful in- 
tentions of the Government, and that the troops would only be em- 



378 History of the United States. 

ployed as a posse comitatns when called on by the civil authority to aid 
in the execution of the laws. 

No wise government will lightly estimate the efforts which may be 
inspired by such frenzied fanaticism as exists among the Mormons 
in Utah. This is the first rebellion which has existed in our Terri- 
tories, and humanity itself requires that we should put it down in such 
a manner that it shall be the last. To trifle with it would be to en- 
courage it and to render it formidable. 

We ought to go there with such an imposing force as to convince 
these deluded people that resistance would be vain, and thus spare the 
effusion of blood. In order to accomplish this object it will be neces- 
sary, according to the estimate of the War Department, to raise four 
additional regiments; and this I earnestly recommend to Congress. 

I recommend to Congress the establishment of a Territorial gov- 
ernment over Arizona, incorporating with it such portions of New 
Mexico as they may deem expedient. I need scarcely adduce ar- 
guments in support of this recommendation. We are bound to pro- 
tect the lives and the property of our citizens inhabiting Arizona, and 
these are now without any efificient protection. Their present number 
is already considerable, and is rapidly increasing, notwithstanding the 
disadvantages under which they labor. Besides, the proposed Ter- 
ritory is believed to be rich in mineral and agricultural resources, es- 
pecially in silver and copper. The mails of the United States to Cal- 
ifornia are now carried over it throughout its whole extent, and this 
route is known to be the nearest and believed- to be the best to the 
Pacific. 

I have received (January ii, 1858), from Samuel Medary, governor 
of the Territory of Minnesota, a copy of the Constitution of Minnesota, 
" together with an abstract of the votes polled for and against said 
Constitution " at the election held in that Territory on the second Tues- 
day of October last, certified by the governor in due form, which I now 
lay before Congress in the manner prescribed by that instrument. 

Having received but a single copy of the Constitution, I transmit this 
to the Senate. 



The Territory of Utah was settled by certain emigrants from 
the States and from foreign countries who have for several years 
past manifested a spirit of insubordination to the Constitution and laws 
of the United States. The great mass of those settlers, acting under 



James Buchanan. 379 

the influence of leaders to whom they seem to have surrendered their 
judgment, refuse to be controlled by any other authority. They have 
been often advised to obedience, and these friendly counsels have been 
answered with defiance. The of^cers of the Federal Government have 
been driven from the Territory for no ofifense but an effort to do their 
sworn duty; others have been prevented from going there by threats 
of assassination; judges have been violently interrupted in the per- 
formance of their functions, and the records of the courts have been 
seized and destroyed or concealed. Many other acts of unlawful 
violence have been perpetrated, and the right to repeat them has been 
openly claimed by the leading inhabitants, with at least the silent ac- 
quiescence of nearly all the others. Their hostility to the lawful gov- 
ernment of the country has at length become so violent that no officer 
bearing a commission from the Chief Magistrate of the Union can 
enter the Territory or remain there with safety, and all those officers 
recently appointed have been unable to go to Salt Lake or anywhere 
else in Utah beyond the immediate power of the Army. Indeed, such 
is believed to be the condition to which a strange system of terror- 
ism has brought the inhabitants of that region that no one among 
them could express an opinion favorable to this Government, or even 
propose to obey its laws, without exposing his life and property to 
peril. 

After carefully considering this state of affairs and maturely weigh- 
ing the obligation I was under to see the laws faithfully executed, it 
seemed to me right and proper that I should make such use of the 
military force at my disposal as might be necessary to protect the 
Federal officers in going iiSo the Territory of Utah and in perform- 
ing their duties after arriving there. I accordingly ordered a detach- 
ment of the Army to march for the city of Salt Lake, or within reach 
of that place, and to act in case of need as a posse for the enforcement 
of the laws. But in the meantime the hatred of that misguided people 
for the just and legal authority of the Government had become so in- 
tense that they resolved to measure their military strength with that 
of the Union. They have organized an armed force far from contemp- 
tible in point of numbers and trained it, if not with skill, at least with 
great assiduity and perseverance. While the troops of the United 
States were on their march a train of baggage wagons, which hap- 
pened to be unprotected, was attacked and destroyed by a portion of 
the Mormon forces and the provisions and stores with which the train 
was laden were wantonly burnt. In short, their present attitude is 



380 History of the United States. 

one of decided and unreserved enmity to th' United States and to 
all their loyal citizens. Their determination to oppose the authority 
of the Government by military force has not only been expressed in 
words, but manifested in overt acts of the most unequivocal character. 

SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 6, 1858. 

It has been made known to the world by my predecessors that the 
United States have on several occasions endeavored to acquire Cuba 
from Spain by honorable negotiation. If this were accomplished, the 
last relic of the African slave trade would instantly disappear. We 
would not, if we could, acquire Cuba in any other manner. This is 
due to our national character. All the territory which we have ac- 
quired since the origin of the Government has been by fair purchase 
from France, Spain, and Mexico or by the free and voluntary act of 
the independent State of Texas in blending her destinies with our own. 
This course we shall ever pursue, unless circumstances should occur 
which we do not now anticipate, rendering a departure from it clearly 
justifiable under the imperative and overruling law of self-preserva- 
tion. 

The island of Cuba, from its geographical position, commands the 
mouth of the Mississippi and the immense and annually increasing 
trade, foreign and coastwise, from the valley of that noble river, now 
embracing half the sovereign States of the Union. With that island 
under the dominion of a distant foreign power this trade, of vital im- 
portance to these States, is exposed to the danger of being destroyed 
in time of war, and it has hitherto been subjected to perpetual injury 
and annoyance in time of peace. Our relations with Spain, which 
ought to be of the most friendly character, must always be placed in 
jeopardy whilst the existing colonial government over the island shall 
remain in its present condition. 

Whilst the possession of the island would be of vast importance to 
the United States, its value to Spain is comparatively unimportant. 
Such w^as the relative situation of the parties when the great Napoleon 
transferred Louisiana to the United States. Jealous as he ever was 
of the national honor and interests of France, no person throughout 
the world has imputed blame to him for accepting a pecuniary equiva- 
lent for this cession. 

The publicity which has been given to our former negotiations upon 
this subject and the large appropriation which may be required to 
effect the purpose render it expedient before making another attempt 



James Buchanan. 381 

to renew the negotiation that I should lay the whole subject before 
Congress. This is especially necessary, as it may become indispensa- 
ble to success that I should be intrusted with the means of making an 
advance to the Spanish Government immediately after the signing of 
the treaty, without awaiting the ratification of it by the Senate. I am 
encouraged to make this suggestion by the example of Mr. Jefferson 
previous to the purchase of Louisiana from France and by that of Mr. 
Polk in view of the acc[uisition of territory from Mexico. I refer the 
whole subject to Congress and commend it to their careful consid- 
eration. 

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 3, 1860. 

The long-continued and intemperate interference of the Northern 
people with the question of slavery in the Southern States has at length 
produced its natural effects. The different sections of the Union are 
now arrayed against each other, and the time has arrived, so much 
dreaded by the Father of his Country, when hostile geographical 
parties have been formed. 

But let us take warning in time and remove the cause of danger. It 
can not be denied that for five and twenty years the agitation at the 
^lorth against slavery has been incessant. In 1835 pictorial handbills 
and inflammatory appeals were circulated extensively throughout the 
South of a character to excite the passions of the slaves, and, in the 
language of General Jackson, " to stimulate them to insurrection and 
produce all the horrors of a servile war." This agitation has ever 
since been continued by the public press, by the proceedings of State 
and county conventions and by abolition sermons and lectures. The 
time of Congress has been occupied in violent speeches on this never- 
ending subject, and appeals, in pamphlet and other forms, indorsed by 
distinguished names, have been sent forth from this central point and 
spread broadcast over the Union. 

How easy would it be for the American people to settle the slavery ' 
question forever and to restore peace and harmony to this distracted 
country! They, and they alone, can do it. All that is necessary to 
accomplish the object, and all for which the slave States have ever con- 
tended, is to be let alone and permitted to manage their domestic insti- 
tutions in their own way. As sovereign States, they and they alone, 
are responsible before God and the world for the slavery existing 
among them. For this the people of the North are not more re- 
sponsible and have no more right to interfere than with similar institu- 
tions in Russia t)r in Brazil. 



382 History of the United States. 

Upon their g-Qod sense and patriotic forbearance I confess I still 
greatly rely. Without their aid it is beyond the power of any Presi- 
dent, no matter what may be his own political proclivities, to restore 
peace and harmony among the States. Wisely limited and restrained 
as is his power under our Constitution and laws, he alone can accom- 
plish but little for good or for evil on such a momentous question 

At the period of my inauguration I was confronted in Kansas by a 
revolutionary government existing under what is called the " Topelca 
constitution." Its avowed object was to subdue the Territorial gov- 
ernment by force and to inaugurate what was called the " Topeka gov- 
ernment " in its stead To accomplish this object an extensive mili- 
tary organization was formed, and its command intrusted to the most 
violent revolutionary leaders. Under these circumstances it became 
my imperative duty to exert the whole constitutional power of the 
Executive to prevent the flames of civil war from again raging in Kan- 
sas, which in the excited state of the public mind, both North and 
South, might have extended into the neighboring States. The hostile 
parties in Kansas had been inflamed against each other by emissaries 
both from the North and the South to a degree of malignity without 
parallel in our history. To prevent actual collision and to assist the 
civil magistrates in enforcing the laws, a strong detachment of the 
Army was stationed in the Territory, ready to aid the marshal and 
his deputies when lawfully called upon as a posse coinifatits in the 
execution of civil and criminal process. Still, the troubles in Kan- 
sas could not have been permanently settled without an election bv 
the people. 

The ballot-box is the surest arbiter of disputes among freemen. 
Under this conviction every proper efifort was employed to induce the 
hostile parties to vote at the election of delegates to frame a State 
constitution, and afterward at the election to decide whether Kansas 
should be a slave or free State. 

The insurgent party refused to vote as either, lest this might be 
considered a recognition on their part of the Territorial government 
established by Congress. A better spirit, however, seemed soon after 
to prevail, and the two parties met face to face at the third election, 
held on the first Monday of January, 1858. for members of the legisla- 
ture and State officers under the Lecompton constitution. The result 
was the triumph of the anti-slavery party at the polls. This decision of 
the ballot-box proved clearly that this party were in the majority, and 
removed the danger of civil war. From that time we have heard 



James Buchanan. 3^3 

little or nothing of the Topeka government, and all serious danger of 
revolutionary troubles in Kansas was then at an end. 

The Lecompton constitution, which had been thus recognized at 
this State election by the votes of both political parties in Kansas, was 
transmitted to me with the request that I should present it to Con- 
gress. This I could not have refused to do without violating my 
clearest and strongest convictions of duty. The constitution and all 
the proceedings which preceded and followed its formation were fair 
and regular on their face. I then believed, and experience has proved, 
that the interests of the people of Kansas would have been best con- 
sulted by its admission as a State into the Union, especially as the 
majority within a brief period could have amended the constitution 
according to their will and pleasure. If fraud existed in all or any 
of these proceedings, it was not for the President but for Congress to 
investigate and determine the question of fraud and what ought to be 
its consequences. If at the first two elections the majority refused to 
vote, it can not be pretended that this refusal to exercise the elective 
franchise could invalidate an election fairly held under lawful authority, 
even if they had not subsequently voted at the third election. It is 
true that the whole constitution had not been submitted to the people, 
as I always desired ; but the precedents are numerous of the admission 
of States into the Union without such submission. It would not comport 
with my present purpose to review the proceedings of Congress upon 
the Lecompton constitution. It is sufficient to observe that their final 
action has removed the last vestige of serious revolutionary troubles. 
The desperate band recently assembled under a notorious outlaw in 
the southern portion of the Territory to resist the execution of the laws 
and to plunder peaceful citizens will, I doubt not, be speedily sub- 
dued and brought to justice. 

Had I treated the Lecompton constitution as a nullity and refused 
to transmit it to Congress, it is not difficult to imagine, whilst recall- 
ing the position of the country at that moment, what would have been 
the disastrous consequences, both in and out of the Territory, from 
such a dereliction of duty on the part of the Executive. 

Peace has also been restored within the Territory of Utah, which 
at the commencement of my Administration was in a state of open re- 
bellion. This was the more dangerous, as the people, animated by a 
fanatical spirit and intrenched within their distant mountain fastnesses, 
might have made a long and formidable resistance. Cost what it 
might, it was necessary to bring them into subjection to the Constitu- 
tion and the laws. 



38^ History of the United States. 

special message, january 8, 1861. 

At the opening of your present session I called your attention to 
the dangers which threatened the existence of the Union. I express id 
my opinion freely concerning the original causes of those dangers, 
and recommended such measures as I believed would have the effect 
of tranquilizing the country and saving it from the peril in which it 
had been needlessly and most vmfortunately involved. Those opin- 
ions and recommendations I do not propose now to repeat. My own 
convictions upon the whole subject remain unchanged. 

The fact that a great calamity was impending over the nation was 
even at that time acknowledged by every intelligent citizen. It had 
already made itself felt throughout the length and breadth of the land. 
The necessary consequences of the alarm thus produced were most 
deplorable. The imports fell ofif with a rapidity never known be- 
fore, except in time of war, in the history of our foreign commerce; 
the Treasury was unexpectedly left without the means which it had 
reasonably counted upon to meet the public engagements; trade was 
paralyzed; manufactures w^ere stopped; the best public securities sud- 
denly sunk in the market; every species of property depreciated more 
or less, and thousands of poor men who depended upon their daily 
labor for their daily bread were turned out of employment. 

I deeply regret that I am not able to give you any information upon 
the state of the Union which is more satisfactory than what I was 
then obliged to communicate. On the contrary, matters are still 
worse at present than they then were. When Congress met, a strong 
hope pervaded the whole public mind that some amicable adjustment 
of the subject would speedily be made by the representatives of the 
States and of the people which might restore peace between the con- 
flicting sections of the country. That hope has been diminished by 
every hour of delay, and as the prospect of a bloodless settlement 
fades away the public distress becomes more and more aggravated. As 
evidence of this it is only necessary to say that the Treasury notes 
authorized by the act of 17th of December last were advertised ac- 
cording to the law and that no responsible bidder offered to take any 
considerable sum at par at a lower rate of interest than 12 per cent. 
From these facts it appears that in a government organized like ours 
domestic strife, or even a well-grounded fear of civil hostilities, is more 
destructive to our public and private interests than the most formid- 
able foreign war. 



e?^^.^/. r/Jud ^^/M-. 











/>«''*(*), 4t^,>i7 ^^. ^^/k^» 



a.^^^. 


r».,^i^ 


-/^^K-i 


,/x. 


»^^-, 


- «. /4 


^' 







'-^^* 






Shz.': ^:j'a^') /^-fi'f-i^- 




m^X.Z^ 



"•1 




SOUTH CAROLINA'S ORDINANCE TO SECEDE FROM THE 
UNION, DECEMBER 20. i860, DURING BUCHANAN'S AD- 
MINISTRATION. 



J />. > ,. /■ 



,/ ■,/'■/'/ ^ /■■ //>■' ni^/i 'fl. h ).- Ill 



t^lr../ii{ i ^^/^'.V z;;^ ../..>^..^/^:-/. - 






M'y"'^ y <^ ,/V'^^/^< 



V/( , 



PRESIDENT BUCHANAN'S NOTE TO SENATE RELATING TO 
UTAH MASSACRES 



James Buchanan. 387 

In my annual message I expressed the conviction, which I have 
long deliberately held, and which recent reflection has only tended 
to deepen and confirm, that no State has a right by its own act to 
secede from the Union or throw off its Federal obligations at pleasure. 
I also declared my opinion to be that even if that right existed and 
should be exercised by any State of the Confederacy the executive de- 
partment of this Government had no authority under the Constitu- 
tion to recognize its validity by acknowledging the independence of 
such State. This left me no alternative, as the chief executive officer 
under the Constitution of the United States, but to collect the public 
revenues and to protect the public property so far as this might be 
practicable under existing laws. This is still my purpose. My 
province is to execute and not to make the laws. It belongs to Con- 
gress exclusively to repeal, to modify, or to enlarge their provisions to 
meet exigencies as they may occur. I possess no dispensing power. 

I certainly had no right to make aggressive war upon any State, 
and I am perfectly satisfied that the Constitution has wisely withheld 
that power even from Congress. But the right and the duty to use 
military force defensively against those who resist the Federal officers 
in the execution of their legal functions and against those who assail the 
property of the Federal Government is clear and undeniable. 

But the dangerous and hostile attitude of the States toward each 
other has already far transcended and cast in the shade the ordinary 
executive duties already provided for by law, and has assumed such 
vast alarming proportions as to place the subject entirely above and 
beyond Executive control. The fact can not be disguised that we 
are in the midst of a great revolution. In all its various bearings, 
therefore, I commend the question to Congress as the only human 
tribunal under Providence possessing the power to meet the existing 
emergency. To them exclusively belongs the power to declare war 
or to authorize the employment of military force in all cases contem- 
plated by the Constitution, and they alone possess the power to re- 
move grievances which might lead to war and to secure peace and 
union to this distracted country. On them, and on them alone, rests 
the responsibility. 

Even now the danger is upon us. In several of the States which 
have not yet seceded the forts, arsenals, and magazines of the United 
States have been seized. This is by far the most serious step which 
has been taken since the commencement of the troubles. This public 
property has long been left without garrisons and troops for its pro- 



388 History of the United States. 

tection, because no person doubted its security under the flag of the 
country in any State of the Union. Besides, our small Army has 
scarcely been sufficient to guard our remote frontiers against Indian 
incursions. The seizure of this property, from all appearances, has 
been purely aggressive, and not in resistance to any attempt to coerce 
a State or States to remain in the Union. 

At the beginning of these unhappy troubles I determined that no 
act of mine should increase the excitement in either section of the 
country. If the political conflict were to end in a civil war, it was my 
determined purpose not to commence it nor even to furnish an excuse 
for it by any act of this Government. My opinion remains unchanged 
that justice as well as sound policy requires us still to seek a peaceful 
solution of the questions at issue between the North and the South. 

It is said that serious apprehensions are to some extent entertained 
(in which I do not share) that the peace of this District may be dis- 
turbed before the 4th of March next. In any event, it will be my duty 
to preserve it, and this duty shall be performed. 

In conclusion it may be permitted to me to remark that I have often 
warned my countrymen of the dangers which now surround us. This 
may be the last time I shall refer to the subject officially. I feel that 
my duty has been faithfully, though it may be imperfectly, performed, 
and, whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the con- 
sciousness that I at least meant well for my country. 



In answer to their resolution of the nth instant (]March i, 1861), 
" that the President of the United States furnish to the House, if 
not incompatible with the public service, the reasons that have in- 
duced him to assemble so large a number of troops in this city, and 
why they are kept here; and whether he has any information of a 
conspiracy upon the part of any portion of the cuizens of this country 
to seize upon the capital and prevent the inauguration of the President 
elect," the President submits that the number of troops assembled in 
this city is not large, as the resolution presupposes, its total amount 
being 653 men exclusive of the marines, who are, of course, at the navy- 
yard as their appropriate station. These troops were ordered here to 
act as a posse comitatus, in strict subordination to the civil authority, 
for the purpose of preserving peace and order in the city of Wash- 



James Buchanan. 389 

ington should this be necessary before or at the period of the inaugu- 
ration of the President elect. 

Since the date of the resolution Hon. Mr. Howard, from the select 
committee, has made a report to the House on this subject. It was 
thoroughly investigated by the committee, and although they have 
expressed the opinion that the evidence before them does not prove 
the existence of a secret organization here or elsewhere hostile to the 
Government that has for its object, upon its own responsibility, an 
attack upon the capital or any of the public property here, or an inter- 
ruption of any of the functions of the Government, yet the House laid 
upon the table by a very large majority a resolution expressing the 
opinion " that the regular troops now in this city ought to be forth- 
with removed therefrom." This of itself was a sufBcient reason for 
not withdrawing the troops. 

But what was the duty of the President at the time the troops were 
ordered to this city? Ought he to have waited before this precaution- 
ary measure was adopted until he could obtain proof that a secret 
organization existed to seize the capital? In the language of the 
select committee, this was " in a time of high excitement consequent 
upon revolutionary events transpiring all around us, the very air filled 
with rumors and individuals indulging in the most extravagant ex- 
pressions of fear and threats." Under these and other circumstances, 
which I need not detail, but which appear in the testimony before the 
select committee, I was convinced that I ought to act. The safety of 
the immense amount of public property in this city and that of the 
archives of the Government, in which all the States, and especially 
the new States in which the public lands are situated, have a deep 
interest; the peace and order of the city itself and the security of the 
inauguration of the President-elect, were objects of such vast import- 
ance to the whole country that I could not hesitate to adopt pre- 
cautionary defensive measures. At the present moment, when all is 
quiet, it is dif^cult to realize the state of alarm which prevailed when 
the troops were first ordered to this city. This almost instantly 
subsided after the arrival of the first company, and a feeling of com- 
parative peace and security has since existed both in Washington and 
throughout the country. Had I refused to adopt this precautionary 
measure, and evil consequences, which many good men at the time 
apprehended, had followed, I should never have forgiven myself. 



390 



History of the United States. 



LIFE OF JAMES BUCHANAN. 

JAMES BUCHANAN was born at Cove Gap, Penn., April 23, 
1 79 1. His father, James Buchanan, was Scotch-Irish and emi- 
grated to this country in 1783. His mother was EHzabeth Speer. 
He graduated from Dickinson College, Penn., in 1809, and three 
years later began to practice law in Lancaster. His first political 
affiliation was with the Federalists, who sent him to Congress De- 
cember, 1821. He remained in the House ten years. In 1829 he 
became chairman of the Judiciary committee of the House. In March, 
1831, he was sent by President Jackson on a special mission to 
Russia. He returned in 1833, ^"^ was the following year elected to 
the United States Senate, and re-elected in 1837. He declined the ap- 
pointment of Attorney-General, which President Van Buren tendered 
him. He was again sent to the Senate in 1843, ^^^ was made Sec- 
retary of State under the Polk Administration in 1845. He was ap- 
pointed minister to England, by President Pierce, April, 1853, but 
was, by his own request, recalled in 1855. He was the Democratic 
nominee for President in 1856, and elected on November 4th of that 
year. He was inaugurated March 4, 1857. He declined a renomina- 
tion in i860, and retired to his home at Wheatland, Penn., where he 
died June i, 1868, and was buried there. ' 



Abraham Lincoln 



391 




HOME OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S GREATNESS. 



By Colonel A. K. McClure, Editor of " The Philadelphia Times. 



' I ^ ESTED by the standard of many other great men, Lincoln was not 
great, but tested by the only true standard of his own achievements, he 
may justly appear in history as one of the greatest American statesmen. 
Indeed, in some most essential attributes of greatness I doubt whether any of 
our public men ever equalled him. 

If there are yet any intelligent Americans who believe that Lincoln was an 
innocent, rural, unsophisticated character, it is time that they should be un- 



392 History of the United States. 

deceived. I venture the assertion, without fear of successful contradiction, that 
Abraham Lincoln was the most sagacious of all the public men of his day in 
either political party. He was, therefore, the master-politician of his time. He 
was not a politician as the term is now commonly applied and understood; 
he knew nothing about the countless methods which are employed in the 
details of political effort; but no man knew better, indeed, I think no man 
knew so well as he did, how to summon and dispose of political ability to 
attain great political results; and this work he performed with unfailing 
wisdom and discretion in every contest for himself and for the country. 

Lincoln's intellectual organization has been portrayed by many writers, but 
so widely at variance as to greatly confuse the general reader. Indeed, he 
was the most difficult of all men to analyze. He did not rise above the 
average man by escaping a common mingling of greatness and infirmities. I 
believe he was very well described in a single sentence by Mr. Herndon 
when he said: " The truth about Mr. Lincoln is, that he read less and thought 
more than any man in his sphere in America." We have had men who couhl 
take a higher intellectual grasp of any abstruse problem of statesmanship, but 
few have ever equalled, and none excelled, Lincoln in the practical, common 
sense, and successful solution of the gravest problems ever presented in 
American history. He possessed a peculiarly receptive and analytical mind. 
He sought information from every attainable source. He sought it per- 
sistently, weighed it earnestly, and in the end reached his own conclusions. 
When he had once reached a conclusion as to a public duty, there was no 
human power equal to the task of changing his purpose. He was self-reliant 
to an uncommon degree, and yet as entirely free from arrogance of opinion 
as any public man I have ever known. 

Unlike all Presidents who had preceded him, he came into office without a 
fixed and accepted policy. Civil war plunged the Government into new and 
most perplexing duties. The people were unschooled to the sad necessities 
which had to be accepted to save the Republic. Others would have rushed in 
to offend public sentiment by the violent acceptance of what they knew must 
be accepted in the end. These men greatly vexed and embarrassed Lincoln 
in his sincere efforts to advance the people and the Government to the full 
measure of the sacrifices which were inevitable; but Lincoln waited patiently — 
waited until in the fullness of time the judgment of the people was ripened for 
action, and then, and then only, did Lincoln act. Had he done otherwise, he 
would have involved the country in fearful peril both at home and abroad, and 
it was his constant study of, and obedience to, the honest judgment of the 
people of the Nation that saved the Republic and that enshrined him in 
history as the greatest of modern rulers. 



Abraham Lincoln. 393 

While Lincoln had little appreciation of himself as candidate for President 
as late as 1859, the dream of reaching the Presidency evidently took possession 
of him in the early part of i860, and his efforts to advance himself as a 
candidate were singularly awkward and infelicitous. He had then no ex- 
perience whatever as a leader of leaders, and it was not until he had made 
several discreditable blunders that he learned how much he must depend upon 
others if he would make himself President. Some Lincoln enthusiast in 
Kansas, with much more pretensions than power, wrote him in March, i860, 
proposing to furnish a Lincoln delegation from that State to the Chicago 
convention, and suggesting that Lincoln should pay the legitimate expenses of 
organizing, electing, and taking to the convention the promised Lincoln dele- 
gates. To this Lincoln replied that " in the main, the use of money is wrong, 
but for certain objects in a political contest the use of some is both right and 
indispensable." And he added, " If you shall be appointed a delegate to Chicago 
I will furnish $100 to bear the expenses of the trip." He heard nothing further 
from the Kansas man until he saw an announcement in the newspapers that 
Kansas had elected delegates and instructed them for Seward. This was 
Lincoln's first disappointment in his efifort to organize his friends to attain the 
presidential nomination, but his philosophy was well maintained. Without 
waiting to hear from his friend who had contracted to bring a Lincoln delega- 
tion from Kansas he wrote him, saying, " I see by the dispatches that since 
you wrote Kansas has appointed delegates instructed for Seward. Don't stir 
them up to anger, but come along to the convention, and I will do as I said 
about expenses." It is not likely that that unfortunate experience cost Lincoln 
his $100, but it is worthy of note that soon after his inauguration as President 
he gave the man a Federal office with a comfortable salary. 

There were no political movements of National importance during Lincoln's 
Administration in which he did not actively, although often hiddenly, par- 
ticipate. It was Lincoln who finally, after the most convulsive efforts to get 
Missouri into line with the Administration, effected a reconciliation of dis- 
puting parties which brought Brown and Henderson into the Senate, and it 
was Lincoln who in 1863 took a leading part in attaining the declination of 
Curtin as a gubernatorial candidate that year. 

Abraham Lincoln was not a sentimental Abolitionist. Indeed, he was not a 
sentimentalist on any subject. He was a man of earnest conviction and of 
sublime devotion to his faith. In many of his public letters and state papers 
he was as poetic as he was epigrammatic, and he was singularly felicitous in 
the pathos that was so often interwoven with his irresistible logic. But he 
never contemplated the abolition of slavery until the events of the war not 
only made it clearly possible, but made it an imperious necessity. As the 



394 



History of the United States. 



sworn Executive of Uie Nation, it was his duty to obey the Constitution in all 
its provisions, and he accepted that duty without reservation. He knew that 
slavery was the immediate cause of the political disturbance that culminated 
in civil war, and I know that he believed from the beginning that if war 
should be persisted in, it could end only in the severance of the Union or the 
destruction of slavery. His supreme desire was peace, alike before the war, 
during the war, and in closing the war. He exhausted every means within his 
power to teach the Southern people that slavery could not be disturbed by his 
Administration as long as they themselves obeyed the Constitution and laws 
which protected slavery, and he never uttered a word or did an act to justify, 
or even excuse, the South in assuming that he meant to make any warfare 
upon the institution of slavery beyond protecting the free territories from its 
desolating tread. 

It was not until the war had been in progress for nearly two years that 
Lincoln decided to proclaim the policy of Emancipation, and then he was care- 
ful to assume the power as warranted under the Constitution only by the 
supreme necessities of war. There was no time from the inauguration of 
Lincoln until the ist of January, 1863, that the South could not have returned 
to the Union with slavery intact in every State. His preliminary proclamation, 
dated September 22, 1862, gave notice that on the ist of January, 1863, he 
would by public proclamation, " warranted by the Constitution upon military 
necessity," declare that " all persons held as slaves within any State, or desig- 
nated part of the State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against 
the United States, shall be thenceforward and forever free." Every insurgent 
State had thus more than three months' formal notice that the war was not 
prosecuted for the abolition of slavery, but solely for the restoration of the 
Union, and that they could, by returning and accepting the authority of the 
National Government at any time before the ist of January, 1863, preserve 
slavery indefinitely. 





SIXTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE? 



n 






<^^ if .^, 



it'iZ^C ^ ,.,.,■(' .■•/,' /^,j ^Z ^.^cLcict^f Of^^ 

dta^i^ ijCy^i ' / ' ^.i ,1. rr>-J^' ^'(^'^^ 4^A<&/Cy C^te>^ 

(.ir-A^<S^~^ ^*i 6<^-c^< . ■ Cy-i ^w, Cf ^/Cecj^ <;?l-yV a-^^I^ ^irfCC^ <i^zi*t.^^»«£^ 






' ./-'^.'.;. 



. /. /./. 






LINCOLN'S EXHORTATION TO THE PEOPLE OF THE U. S. NOT 
TO PLUNGE INTO CIVIL WAR. 



Abraham Lincoln. 397 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1861-1865. 



By Abraham Lincoln. 



FIRST INAUGUR.\L ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1861. 

I DO not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those 
matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety 
or excitement. 
Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern 
States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their 
property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. 
There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. 
Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while 
existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the 
published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote 
from one of those speeches when I declare that — 

I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of 
slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, 
and I have no inclination to do so. 

Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge 
that I had made this and many similar declarations and had never 
recanted them; and more than this, they placed in the platform for my 
acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and 
emphatic resolution which I now read : 

Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and 
especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic in- 
stitutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance 
of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend; 
and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State 
or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. 

I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so I only press upon 
the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is 



398 History of the United States. 

susceptible that the property, peace, and security of no section are to 
be in anywise endangered by the now incoming Administration. I 
add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Constitu- 
tion and the laws, can be given will be cheerfully given to all the 
States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause — as cheerfully to 
one section as to another. 

There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from 
service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the 
Constitution as any other of its provisions: 

No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, 
escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be 
discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the 
party to which such service or labor may be due. 

It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those 
who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves ; and the 
intention of the lawgiver is the law. All members of Congress swear 
their support to the whole Constitution — to this provision as much 
as to any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves whose cases 
come within the terms of this clause " shall be delivered up " their 
oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in good 
temper, could they not with nearly equal unanimity frame and pass a 
law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath? 

There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be 
enforced by National or by State authority, but surely that difference 
is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be 
of but little consequence to him or to others by which authority it is 
done. And should anyone in any case be content that his oath shall 
go unkept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to hozv it shall be 
kept? 

Again: In any law upon this subject ought not all the safeguards 
of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be intro- 
duced, so that a free man be not in any case surrendered as a slave? 
And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the 
enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that 
" the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and im- 
munities of citizens in the several States? " 

I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations and with 
no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical 



Abraham Lincoln. 399 

rules; and while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of 
Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much 
safer for all, both in ofificial and private stations, to conform to and 
abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed than to violate any of 
them trusting to find impunity in having them held to be uncon- 
stitutional. 

It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President 
under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different 
and greatly distinguished citizens have in succession administered the 
executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through 
many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope 
of precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief constitu- 
tional term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. A dis- 
ruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now 
formidably attempted. 

I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution 
the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not 
expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is 
safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its 
organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the 
express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will 
endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action 
not provided for in the instrument itself. 

Again: If the United States be not a government proper, but an 
association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a 
contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made 
it? One party to a contract may violate it — break it, so to speak — 
but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it? 

Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition 
that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the 
history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Con- 
stitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 
1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the 
then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be 
perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 
1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the 
Constitution was " to form a marc perfect Union." 

But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the 
States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the 
Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity. 



400 History of the United States. 

It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion 
can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that 
eftect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or 
States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary 
or revolutionary, according to circumstances. 

I, therefore, consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws 
the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I shall take 
care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the 
laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this 
I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it so 
far as practicable unless my rightful masters, the American people, 
shall withhold the requisite means or in some authoritative manner 
direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but 
only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally 
defend and maintain itself. 

In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there 
shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. 

Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to com- 
pose a new union as to produce harmony only and prevent renewed 
secession? 

Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A 
majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and 
always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions 
and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever 
rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity 
is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, 
is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, 
anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left. 

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and ivcll upon this whole 
subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an 
object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would 
never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; 
but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now 
dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the 
sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new 
Administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change 
either. If it w^ere admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right 
side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate 
action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on 
Him who nas never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent 
to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty. 



Abraham Lincoln. 401 

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, 
is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail 
you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggres- 
sors. Yoit have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Govern- 
ment, while / shall have the most solemn one to " preserve, protect, 
and defend it." 

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must 
not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break 
our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching 
from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and 
hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the 
Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels 
of our nature. 



Whereas the laws (April 15, 1861) of the United States have been 
for some time past and now are opposed and the execution thereof 
obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas by combinations too powerful to be 
suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the 
powers vested in the marshals by law: 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, in virtue of tliC power in me vested by the Constitution and the 
laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia 
of the several States of the Union to the aggregate number of 75,000, 
in order to svippress said combinations and to cause the laws to be 
duly executed. 

The details of this object will be immediately communicated to the 
State authorities through the War Department. 

I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort 
to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National 
L'nion and the perpetuity of popular government and to redress 
wrongs already long enough endured. 

I deem it proper to say that the first services assigned to the forces 
hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and 
property which have been seized from the Union; and in every event 
the utmost care will be observ^ed, consistently with the objects afore- 
said, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of or interference with 
property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the 
country. 



402 History of the United States. 

And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations 
aforesaid to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes 
within twenty days from this date. 

Deeming that the present condition of pubhc affairs presents an ex- 
traordinary occasion, I do herel^y, in virtue of the power in me vested 
by the Constitution, convene both Houses of Congress. Senators 
and Representatives are therefore summoned to assemble at their re- 
spective chambers at 12 o'clock noon on Thursday, the 4th day of July 
next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as, in 
their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem to demand. 



Whe^reas an insurrection against the Government (April 19. 1861) 
of the United States has broken out in the States of South Carolina, 
Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the 
laws of the United States for the collection of the revenue can not be 
effectually executed therein conformably to that provision of the Con- 
stitution which requires duties to be uniform throughout the United 
States; and. 

Whereas a combination of persons engaged in such insurrection 
have threatened to grant pretended letters of marque to authorize the 
bearers thereof to commit assaults on the lives, vessels, and property 
of good citizens of the country lawfully engaged in commerce on the 
high seas and in waters of the United States ; and 

Whereas an Executive proclamation has been already issued requir- 
ing the persons engaged in these disorderly proceedings to desist 
therefrom, calling out a militia force for the purpose of repressing the 
same, and convening Congress in extraordinary session to deliberate 
and determine thereon: 

Now, therefore, 1, Abraham Lincoln, President of the L^nited 
States, with a view to the same purposes before mentioned and to the 
protection of the public peace and the lives and property of quiet and 
orderly citizens pursuing their lawful occupations, until Congress 
shall have assembled and deliberated on the said unlawful proceed- 
ings or until the same shall have ceased, have further deemed it ad- 
visable to set on foot a blockade of the ports within the States aforesaid, 
in pursuance of the laws of the United States and of the law of nations 
m such case provided. For this purpose a competent force will be 
posted so as to prevent entrance and exit of vessels from the ports 



Abraham Lincoln. 403 

aforesaid. If, therefore, with a view to violate such blockade, a 
vessel shall approach or shall attempt to leave either of the said ports, 
she will be dul} warned by the commander of one of the blockading 
vessels, who will indorse on her register the fact and date of such 
warning, and if the same vessel shall again attempt to enter or leave 
the blockaded port she will be captured and sent to the nearest con- 
venient port for such proceedings against her and her cargo as prize 
as may be deemed advisable. 

And I hereby proclaim and declare that if any person, under the 
pretended authority of the said States or under any other pretense, 
shall molest a vessel of the United States or the persons or cargo on 
board of her, such person will be held amenable to the laws of the 
United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy. 

On the 1st day of November, A. D. 1861, upon his own applica- 
tion to the President of the United States. Brevet Lieutenant-General 
Winfield wScott, is ordered to be placed, and hereby is placed, upon 
the list of retired officers of the Army of the United States, without 
reduction in his current pay, subsistence, or allowances. 

The American people will hear with sadness and deep emotion that 
General Scott has withdrawn from the active control of the Army, 
while the President and a unanimous Cabinet express their own and 
the nation's sympathy in his personal affliction and their profound 
sense of the important public services rendered by him to his country 
during his long and brilliant career, among which will ever be grate- 
fully distinguished his faithful devotion to the Constitution, the Union, 
and the flag when assailed by parricidal rebellion. 

The President is pleased (November i, 1861) to direct that Major- 
General George B. McClellan assume the command of the Army of 
the United States. The headquarters of the Army will be established 
in the city of Washington. All communications intended for the 
Commanding General will hereafter be addressed direct to the Ad- 
jutant-General. The duplicate returns, orders, and other papers 
heretofore sent to the Assistant Adjutant-General, Headquarters of 
the Army, will be discontinued. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 3, 1861. 

The Territories of Colorado, Dakota, and Nevada, created by the last 
Congress, have been organized, and civil administration has been in- 
augurated therein under auspices especially gratifying when it is con- 



404 History of the United States. 

sidercd that the leaven of treason was found existing in some of these 
new countries when the Federal officers arrived there. 

1 deem it of importance that the loyal regions of east Tennessee and 
western North Carohna should be connected with Kentucky and other 
faithful parts of the Union by railroad. I therefore recommend, as a 
military measure, that Congress provide for the construction of such 
road as speedily as possible. Kentucky no doubt will co-operate, and 
through her legislature make the most judicious selection of a line. 
The northern terminus must connect with some existing railroad, 
and whether the route shall be from Lexington or Nicliolasville to the 
Cumberland Gap, or from Lebanon to the Tennessee line, in the direc- 
tion of Knoxville, or on some still dififerent line, can easily be deter- 
mined. Kentucky and the General Government co-operating, the 
work can be completed in a very short time, and when done it will be 
not only of vast present usefulness, but also a valuable permanent im- 
provement, worth its cost in all the future. 

The last ray of hope for preserving the LTnion peaceably expired at 
the assault upon Fort Sumter, and a general review of what has 
occurred since may not be unprofitable. What was painfully uncer- 
tain then is much better defined and more distinct now, and the prog- 
ress of events is plainly in the right direction. The insurgents 
confidently claimed a strong support from north of INIason and 
Dixon's line, and the friends of the Union were not free from appre- 
hension on the point. This, however, was soon settled definitely, and 
on the right side. South of the line noble little Delaware led off 
right from the first. Maryland was made to scon against the L'nion. 
Our soldiers were assaulted, bridges were burned, and railroads torn 
up within her limits, and we were many days at one time without the 
ability to bring a single regiment over her soil to the capital. Now 
her bridges and railroads are repaired and open to the Government; 
she already gives seven regiments to the cause of the Union, and none 
to the enemy; and her people, at a regular election, have sustained 
the Union by a larger majority and a larger aggregate vote than thev 
ever before gave to any candidate or any question. Kentucky, too, 
for some time in doubt, is now decidedly and, I think, unchangeably 
ranged on the side of the Union. Missouri is comparatively quiet, 
and, I believe, can not again be overrun by the insurrectionists. 
These three States of Maryland. Kentucky, and Missouri, neither of 
which would promise a single soldier at first, have now an aggregate 
of not less than 40,000 in the field for the Union, while of their citizens 



;7 ■ p 


y, y 


. /;. 


- //, 


y- '/';r,:C 




//, 


y 


•/;/,.. 


..--^■.... 












1 . '- • ■ 






.-:, 




i .....,.,.,. 


/■\. 


' 




'/ft /\ ■ 



.z 



''^' 



/ ^ / 



/^ y. 



Z/, 



/ 



/r^.. 






K r .1. ,w^ ^<., , , ,,' r //C- 



rr /'/ y ^/ ■ / . 4^ ' ' / • Z' ' 

C^ruy /f^tUt/c^tn. ^;ry^i<cy. /Li--riJi^<^ r( i^ <:;( c<-'(.c-C'W!a /i4> <^<yj 




OLe^ 



j/ry:^a.c^:>--o'. 



rr /TV 



rr /^^ , 

^y/ta^yO 7Z^^ aZ^^ cye.<r€t^v~C' c.<r( ■C'O i^'^ ' (Ap'/^.r^'Z'c'nex:^ 



FIRST AND LAST PAG1-;S < )F LINCOLN'S LA! ANCIPATION 

PROCLAMATION. 







/.^;. 



/ / 






/^/. 






'U^ 







^^-r 






^y>---<^7^ , U -x^L ' c'T //(<-. 






^yp^-~e^ - t^.^ i/ //fr>i.JU~^^-' ^^9cit^C<^Cf^ 



PAGE FROM LINXOLX'S EMANXIPATION PROCLAMATION. 



^Ai^ a 7^ y.yo--/^> W '^■^' ■'- y '^^' ^ '^•-■^ -^^ ^-^-(/f^ ^c-^^»^ /^'Xc-^r ^ ; 












•"-'iV^-Z^^-^'L' 



<^<r->i> <'./;^<', 



rx cjt-c-'i/~i' aO ^ 






t^r7Z&t /,^L..iryi^ /!>/t<^ t^O\J .j^V*^ C^^T^-Ct^ ^^^Cc-l-^ <:yC^ ^ Z^-C^ 



LAST PAGE OF LINCOLN'S EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 




LIXXOLN'S SIGNATURE TO EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATIO 



N. 



Abkaiiam Lincoln. 409 

certainly not more than a third of that number, and they of doubtful 
whereabouts and doubtful existence, are in arms against us. After a 
somewhat bloody struggle of months, wnnter closes on the Union 
people of western Virginia, leaving them masters of their own country. 

An insurgent force of about 1,500, for months dominating the nar- 
row peninsular region constituting the counties of Accomac and 
Northampton, and known as Eastern Shore of Virginia, together with 
some contiguous parts of Maryland, have laid down their arms, and 
the people there have renewed their allegiance to and accepted the 
protection of the old flag. This leaves no armed insurrectionist north 
of the Potomac or east of the Chesapeake. 

Also we have obtained a footing at each of the isolated points on 
the southern coast of Hatteras, Port Royal, Tybee Island (near Savan- 
nah), and Ship Island; and we likewise have some general accounts 
of popular movements in behalf of the Union in North Carolina and 
lennessee. 

These things demonstrate that the cause of the Union is advancing 
steadily and certainly southward. 

It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if not exclu- 
sively, a war upon the first principle of popular government — the 
rights of the people. Conclusive evidence of this is found in the most 
grave and maturely considered public documents, as well as in the 
general tone of the insurgents. In those documents we find the 
abridgment of the existing right of suffrage and the denial to the 
people of all right to participate in the selection of public officers ex- 
cept the legislative boldly advocated, with labored arguments to prove 
that large .control of the people in government is the source of all 
political evil. Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted at as a possible 
refuge from the power of the people. 

In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit 
raising a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. 

It is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument should be 
made in favor of popular institutions, but there is one point, with its 
ccnnections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief 
attention. It is the efifort to place capital on an equal footing with, if 
not above, labor in the structure of government. It is assumed that 
labor is available only in connection with capital; that nobody 
labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use 
of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered 
whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them 



4IO History of the United States. 

to work bv their own consent, or buy them and drive them to it with- 
out their consent. Having proceeded so far, it is naturally concluded 
that all laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves. And 
further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is fixed in 
that conditon of life. 

Now there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed, 
nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the 
condition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and 
all inferences from them are groundless. 

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the 
fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first ex- 
isted. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher 
consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protec- 
tion as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably 
always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual 
benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community 
exists within that relation. A few men own capital, and that few 
avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire or buy another few 
to labor for them. A large majority belong to neither class — neither 
work for others nor have others working for them. In most of the 
Southern States a majority of the whole people of all colors are neither 
slaves nor masters, while in the Northern a large majority are neither 
hirers nor hired. Men, with their families — wives, sons, and daugh- 
ters — w^ork for themselves on their farms, in their houses, and in their 
shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors 
of capital on the one hand nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. 
It is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their 
own labor with capital; that is, they labor with their own hands and 
also bviy or hire others to labor for them ; but this is only a mixed and 
not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the existence 
of this mixed class. 

Again, as has already been said, there is not of necessity any such 
thing as the free hired labor being fixed to that condition for life. 
Many independent men everywhere in these States a few years back 
in their lives were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless beginner 
in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to 
buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another 
while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This 
is the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way 
to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress and im- 



Abraham Lincoln. 411 

provement of condition to all. No men living are more worthy to be 
trusted than those who toil up from poverty ; none less inclined to take 
or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them be- 
ware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, 
and which if surrendered will surely be used to close the door of ad- 
vancement against such as they and to fix new disabilities and burdens 
upon them till all of liberty shall be lost. 

From the first taking of our national census to the last are seventy 
years, and we find our population at the end of the period eight times 
as great at it was at the beginning. The increase of those other things 
which men deem desirable has been even greater. We thus have at 
one view what the popular principle, applied to Government through 
the machinery of the States and the Union, has produced in a given 
time, and also what if firmly maintained it promises for the future. 
There are already among us those who if the Union be preserved will 
live to see it contain 250,000,000. The struggle of to-day is not al- 
together -for to-day; it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on 
Providence all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great 
task which events have devolved upon us. 



I recommend the adoption (March 6, 1862) of a joint resolution by 
your honorable bodies, which shall be substantially as follows: 

Resolved, That the L^nited States ought to co-operate with any State 
which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State 
pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in its discretion, to compensate 
for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of 
system. 

If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the ap- 
proval of Congress and the country, there is the end; but if it does 
command such approval, I deem it of importance that the States and 
people immediately interested should be at once distinctly notified of 
the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject 
it. The Federal Government would find its highest interest in such a 
measure, as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation. The 
leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that this Govern- 
ment will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of 
some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave States north of 



412 History of the United States. 

such part will then say, " The Union for which we have struggled being 
already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern section." To 
deprive them of this hope substantially ends the rebellion, and the 
initiation of emancipation completely deprives them of it as to all the 
States initiating it. The point is not that all the States tolerating 
slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that while 
the offer is equally made to all, the more northern shall by such initia- 
tion make it certain to the more southern that in no event will the 
former ever join the latter in their proposed confederacy. I say " ini- 
tiation " because, in my judgment, gradual and not sudden emancipa- 
tion is better for all. In the mere financial or pecuniary view any 
member of Congress with the census tables and Treasury reports 
before him can readily see for himself how very soon the current ex- 
penditures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves 
in any named State. Such a proposition on the part of the General 
Government sets up no claim of a right by Federal authority to inter- 
fere with slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the absolute 
control of the subject in each case to the State and its people imme- 
diately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice 
with them. 

In the annual message last December I thought fit to say " the 
Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must 
be employed." I said this not hastily, but deliberately. War has 
been made and continues to be an indispensable means to this end. 
A practical reacknowledgment of the national authority would render 
the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however, resist- 
ance continues, the war must also continue; and it is impossible to 
foresee all the incidents which may attend and all the ruin which may 
follow it. Such as may seem indispensable or may obviously promise 
great efficiency toward ending the struggle must and will come. 

The proposition now made (though an offer only), I hope it may be 
esteemed no offense to ask whether the pecuniary consideration ten- 
dered would not be of more value to the States and private persons con- 
cerned than are the institution and property in it in the present aspect 
of affairs. 

While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would 
be merely initiatory, and not within itself a practical measure, it is 
recommended in the hope that it would soon lead to important practi- 
cal results. In full view of my great responsibility to my God and to 
my country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people 
to the subject. 



Abraham Lincoln. 413 

It is recommended (February 19, 1862) to the people of the United 
States that they assemble in their customary places of meeting for pub- 
lic solemnities on the 22d day of February, 1862, instant and celebrate 
the anniversary of the birth of the Father of his Country by causing 
to be read to them his immortal Farewell Address. 



I, Abraham Lincoln, President (September 22, 1862) of the United 
States of America and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy 
thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, 
the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the 
constitutional relation between the United States and each of the 
States and the people thereof in which States that relation is or may 
be suspended or disturbed. 

That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again 
recommend the adoption of a practical measure tending pecuniary aid 
to the free acceptance or rejection of all slave States, so called, the 
people whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States, 
and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter 
may voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery 
within their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons 
of African descent with their consent upon this continent or elsewhere, 
with the previously obtained consent of the governments existing 
there, will be continued. 

That on the ist day of January, A. D. 1863, all persons held as 
slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people 
whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be 
then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government 
of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, 
will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no 
act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they 
may make for their actual freedom. 

That the Executive will on the ist day of January aforesaid, by 
proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which 
the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the 
United States; and the fact that any State or the people thereof shall 
on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United 
States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of 
the qualified voters of such State shall have participated shall, in the 
absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evi- 



414 History of the United States. 

dence that such State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion 
against the United States. 

That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress entitled " An 
act to make an additional article of war," approved March 13, 1862, 
and which act is in the words and figure following: 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled. That hereafter the following shall be promulgated 
a-j an additional article of war for the government of the Army of the United 
States, and shall be obeyed and observed as such: 

Art. — . All officers or persons in the military or navai service of the United 
States are prohibited from employing any of the forces under their respective 
commands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor who 
may have escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed 
to be due, and any officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of 
violating this article shall be dismissed from the service. 

§ 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect from and after its 
passage. 

Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled "An act to 
suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and 
confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes," approved 
July 17, 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures fol- 
lowing : 

§ 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter 
be engaged in rebellion against the Government of the United States, or who 
shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and 
taking refuge within the lines of the army, and all slaves captured from such 
persons or deserted by them and coming under the control of the Government 
of the United States, and all slaves of such persons found on [or] being within 
any place occupied by rebel forces and afterward occupied by the forces of the 
United States, shall be deemed captives of war and shall be forever free of 
their servitude and not again held as slaves. 

§ 10. And be it further enacted. That no slave escaping into any State, Terri- 
tory, or the District of Columbia from any other State shall be delivered up or 
in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty except for crime or some oflfense 
against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath 
that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be 
due is his lawful owner and has not borne arms against the United States in 
the present rebellion nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no 
pe?son engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, 



Abraham Lincoln. 415 

under any pretense whatever, assume to decide on the vaUdity of the claim of 
any person to the service or labor of any other person or surrender up any 
such person to the claimant on pain of being dismissed from the service. 

And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the 
military and naval service of the United States to observ^e, obey, and 
enforce within their respective spheres of service the act and sections 
above recited. 

And the Executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of 
the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout 
the rebellion shall, upon the restoration of the constitutional relation 
between the United States and their respective States and people, if 
that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed, be compensated 
for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves. 



The President with deep regret announces (July 25, 1862) to the 
people of the United States the decease, at Kinderhook, N. Y., on the 
24th instant, of his honored predecessor Martin Van Buren. 

This event will occasion mourning in the nation for the loss of a 
citizen and a public servant whose memory will be gratefully cher- 
ished. Although it has occurred at a time when his country is inflicted 
with division and civil war, the grief of his patriotic friends will 
measurably be assuaged by the consciousness that while suffering 
with disease and seeing his end approaching his prayers were for the 
restoration of the authority of the Government of which he had been 
the head and for peace and good will among his fellow-citizens. 



By direction (November 5, 1862) of the President, it is ordered that 
Major-General McClellan be relieved from the command of the Army 
of the Potomac, and that Major-General Burnside take command of 
that army; also that Major-General Hunter take command of the 
corps in said army which is now commanded by General Burnside; 
that Major-General Fitz John Porter be relieved from the command of 
the corps he now commands in said army, and that Major-General 
Hooker take command of said corps. 

The General in Chief is authorized, in [his] discretion, to issue an 
order substantially as the above forthwith, or so soon as he may deem 
proper. 



41 6 History of the United States. 

emancipation troclamation, january i, 1863. 

Whereas on the 22d day of September, A. D. 1862, a proclamation 
was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among 
other things, the fohowing, to-wit: 

That on the 1st day of January. A. D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within 
any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in 
rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever 
free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military 
and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such 
persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in 
any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. 

That the Executive will on the ist day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, 
designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, 
respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact 
that any Stat-; or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith repre- 
sented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at 
elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have 
participated shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed 
conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then in 
rebellion against the United States. 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincohi, President of the United 
States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of 
the Army and Navy of the United States in tiine of actual armed re- 
bellion against the authority and Government of the United States, 
and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, 
do, on this ist day of January, A. D. 1863, and in accordance with 
n^.y purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one 
hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and "designate 
as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respect- 
ively, are this day in rebellion against the United States the follow- 
ing, to-wit: 

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, 
Plaquemines, Jefiferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, 
Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Or- 
leans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, 
Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and \^irginia 
(except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also 
the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, 



■^ 1 


r , 


'/' ' ' 


..4'/«; 


. l-;..^.. 


' -., .^^- A^/-^'<^v-^:-;^...>^.. 




■v 






' 


' ' ' y . y . - ^' , ■■ . . .: , ,;,; , ,/ 


/ ' ■ / 


■ ■ .'-.,.. 




/ 


/ 


., ..: , ^■-.-^ .-..^^ y" r^^-^,-o^^4^.>~ 




■ 


, ." iA., ....■ .^., .: ■' ^. .' -. y.y.<^::A. 






.■_ .V . . - . ; ,. .,.// .V .- X /.^ ., , , ' ^, .' ^/? /^i^-- 




■ '.-:; / 








/ A.-. /> ,'.>.,.'/ ^ /v, ^ <^V.-7/ -A^' ' • f /--/c-r' 


'■ 


'' r 




/ 






..,-/,• 


-,/'/.^ 


, . , . . / 


,v.^. 


/ / 


--' 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION ADMITTING WEST 
VIRGINIA INTO THE UNION. 




PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S SIGNATURE TO PROCLAMATION AD- 
MITTING WEST VIRGINIA INTO THE UNION. 



Abraham Lincoln. 419 

York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and 
Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left pre- 
cisely as if this proclamation were not issued. 

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do 
order and declare that all persons held as slaves w'thin said designated 
States and parts of States are and henceforward shall be free, and that 
the executive government of the United States, including the military 
and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom 
of said persons. 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to 
abstain from all violence, imless in necessary self-defense; and I recom- 
mend to them that in all cases when allowed they labor faithfully for 
reasonable wages. 

And I further declare and make known that such persons of suit- 
able condition will be received into the armed service of the United 
States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places and to 
man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, war- 
ranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the 
considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty 
God. 

THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION, JULY 1 5, 1863. 

It has pleased Almighty God to (July 15, 1863) hearken to the sup- 
plications and prayers of an afiflicted people and to vouchsafe to the 
Army and the Navy of the United States victories on land and on the 
sea so signal and so effective as to furnish reasonable grounds for 
augmented confidence that the Union of these States will be main- 
tained, their Constitution preserved, and their peace and prosperity 
permanently restored. But these victories have been accorded not 
without sacrifices of life, limb, health, and liberty, incurred by brave, 
loyal, and patriotic citizens. Domestic affliction in every part of the 
country follows in the train of these fearful bereavements. It is meet 
and right to recognize and confess the presence of the Almighty 
Father and the power of His hand equally in these triumphs and in 
these sorrows: 

Now, therefore, be it known that I do set apart Thursday, the 6th 
day of August next, to be observed as a day for national thanksgiving, 
piaise, and prayer, and I invite the people of the United States to as- 
semble on that occasion in their customary places of worship and in 



420 PIlSTORY OF THE UNITED StATES. ■ 

the forms approved by their own consciences render the homage due 
to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the 
nation's behalf and invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue 
the anger which has produced and so long sustained a needless and 
cruel rebellion, to change the hearts of the insurgents, to guide the 
counsels of the Government with wisdom adequate to so great a 
national emergency, and to visit with tender care and consolation 
throughout the length and breadth of our land all those who, through 
the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, battles, and sieges, have been 
brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate, and finally to lead the 
whole nation through the paths of repentance and submission to the 
divine will back to the perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace. 

It is the duty of every government (July 30, 1863) to give protec- 
tion to its citizens, of whatever class, color, or condition, and especially 
to those who are duly organized as soldiers in the public service. The 
law of nations and the usages and customs of war, as carried on by 
civilized powers, permit no distinction as to color in the treatment of 
prisoners of war as public enemies. To sell or enslave any captured 
person on account of his color, and for no ofTense against the law's of 
war, is a relapse into barbarism and a crime against the civilization of 
the age. 

The Government of the United States will give the same protection 
to all its soldiers, and if the enemy shall sell or enslave anyone because 
of his color the offense shall be punished by retaliation upon the 
enemy's prisoners in our possession. 

It is therefore ordered, That for every soldier of the United States 
killed in violation of the laws of war a rebel soldier shall be executed, 
and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery a rebel 
soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works and con- 
tinued at such until the other shall be released and receive the treat- 
ment due to a prisoner of war. 

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 8, 1863. 

We remain in peace and friendship wath foreign powers. 

The efiforts of disloyal citizens of the United States to involve us 
m foreign wars to aid an inexcusable insurrection have been unavail- 
ing. Her Britannic Majesty's Government, as was justly expected, 
have exercised their authority to prevent the departure of new hostile 
expeditions from British ports. The Emperor of France has by a 
like proceeding promptly vindicated the neutrality which he pro- 



Abraham Lincoln. 421 

claimed at the beginning of the contest. Questions of great intricacy 
and importance have arisen out of the blockade and other belligerent 
operations between the Government and several of the maritime 
powers, but they have been discussed and, as far as was possible, 
accommodated in a spirit of frankness, justice, and mutual good will. 
It is especially gratifying that our prize courts, by the impartiality of 
their adjudications, have commanded the respect and confidence of 
maritime powers. 

Satisfactory arrangements have been made with the Emperor of 
Russia, which, it is believed, will result in effecting a continuous line 
of telegraph through that Empire from our Pacific coast. 

I recommend to your favorable consideration the subject of an 
ii.'ternational telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean, and also of a tele- 
graph between this capital and the national forts along the Atlantic 
seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. Such communications, established 
with any reasonable outlay, would be economical as well as effective 
aids to the diplomatic, military, and naval service. 

The report of the Secretary of War is a document of great interest. 
It consists of — 

1. The military operations of the year, detailed in the report of- the 
General-in-Chief. 

2. The organization of colored persons into the war service. 

3. The exchange of prisoners, fully set forth in the letter of General 
Hitchcock. 

4. The operations under the act for enrolling and calling out the 
national forces, detailed in the report of the Provost-Marshal-General. 

5. The organization of the invalid corps, and 

6. The operation of the several departments of the Quartermaster- 
General, Commissary-General, Paymaster-General, Chief of Engi- 
neers, Chief of Ordnance, and Surgeon-General. 

It has appeared impossible to make a valuable summary of this 
report, except such as would be too extended for this place, and hence 
I content myself by asking your careful attention to the report itself. 

The duties devolving on the naval branch of the service during the 
year and throughout the whole of this unhappy contest have been 
discharged with fidelity and eminent success. The extensive blockade 
has been constantly increasing in efficiency as the Navy has expanded, 
yet on so long a line it has so far been impossible to entirely suppress 
illicit trade. From returns received at the Navy Department it ap- 
pears that more than 1,000 vessels have been captured since the 



422 History of the United States. 

blockade was instituted, and that the value of prizes already sent in 
for adjudication amounts to over $13,000,000. 

The naval force of the United States consists at this time of 588 
vessels completed and in the course of completion, and of these 75 are 
ironclad or armored steamers. The events of the war give an in- 
creased interest and importance to the Navy wdiich will probably ex- 
tend beyond the war itself. 

The armored vessels in our Navy completed and in service, or 
which are under contract and approaching completion, are believed 
to exceed in number those of any other power; but while these may be 
relied upon for harbor defense and coast service, others of greater 
strength and capacity will be necessary for cruising purposes and to 
maintain our rightful position on the ocean. 

When Congress assembled a year ago, the war had already lasted 
nearly twenty months, and there had been many conflicts on both 
land and sea, with varying results; the rebellion had been pressed 
back into reduced limits; yet the tone of public feeling and opinion, 
at home and abroad, was not satisfactory. With other signs, the 
popular elections then just past indicated uneasiness among ourselves, 
while, amid much that was cold and menacing, the kindest words 
coming from Europe were uttered in accents of pity that we were 
too blind to surrender a hopeless cause. Our commerce was suffer- 
ing greatly by a lew armed vessels built upon and furnished from 
foreign shores, and we were threatened with such additions from the 
same quarter as would sweep our trade from the sea and raise our 
blockade. We had failed to elicit from European Governments any- 
thing hopeful upon this subject. The preliminary emancipation 
proclamation, issued in September, was running its assigned period to 
the beginning of the new year. A month later the final proclamation 
came, including the announcement that colored men of suitable condi- 
t-ion would be received into the war service. The policy of emancipa- 
tion and of employing black soldiers gave to the future a new aspect, 
about which hope and fear and doubt contended in uncertain conflict. 
According to our political system, as a matter of civil administration, 
the General Government had no lawful power to effect emancipation 
in any State, and for a long time it had been hoped that the rebellion 
could be suppressed without resorting to it as a military measure. 
It was all the while deemed possible that the necessity for it might 
come, and that if it should, the crisis of the contest would then be pre- 
sented. It came, and, as was anticipated, it was followed by dark and 



Abraham Lincoln. 423 

doubtful days. Eleven months having now passed, we are permitted 
to take another review. The rebel borders are pressed still farther 
back, and by the complete opening of the Mississippi the country 
dominated by the rebellion is divided into distinct parts, with no 
practical communication between them. Tennessee and Arkansas 
have been substantially cleared of insurgent control, and influential 
citizens in each, owners of slaves and advocates of slavery at the be- 
ginning of the rebellion, now declare openly for emancipation in their 
respective States. Of course States not included in the emancipation 
proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, neither of which three years 
ago would tolerate any restraint upon the extension of slavery into 
new Territories, only dispute now as to the best mode of removing it 
within their own limits. 

Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion full 
100,000 are now in the United States military service, about one-half 
of which number actuallv bear arms in the ranks, thus giving the 
double advantage of taking so much labor from the insurgent cause 
and supplying the places which otherwise must be filled with so many 
white men. So far as tested, it is difficult to say they are not as good 
soldiers as any. No servile insurrection or tendency to violence or 
cruelty has marked the measures of emancipation and arming the 
blacks. These measures have been much discussed in foreign coun- 
tries, and, contemporary with such discussion, the tone of public 
sentiment there is much improved. At home the same measures have 
been fully discussed, supported, criticised, and denounced, and the 
annual elections following are highly encouraging to those whose 
of^cial duty it is to bear the country through this great trial. Thus 
we have the new reckoning. The crisis which threatened to divide 
the friends of the Union is past. 



I nominate (February 29. 1864) Ulysses S. Grant, now a major- 
general in the military service, to be lieutenant-general m the Army of 
the United States. 

Whereas the Congress of the United States passed an act, which 
was approved on the 21st day of March last, 1864, entitled " An act 
to enable the people of Nevada to form a constitution and State gov- 
ernment and for the admission of such State into the Union on an 
equal footing with the original States: " and 



424 History of the United States. 

Whereas the said constitution and State government have been 
formed, pursuant to the conditions prescribed by the fifth section of 
the act of Congress aforesaid, and the certificate required by the said 
act and also a copy of the constitution and ordinances have been sub- 
mitted to the President of the United States: 

Now, therefore, be it known that (October 31, 1864) I, Abraham 
Lincoln, President of the United States, in accordance with the duty 
imposed upon me by the act of Congress aforesaid, do hereby declare 
and proclaim that the said State of Nevada is admitted into the Union 
on an equal footing with the original States. 

Under the authority of an act of Congress (March 10, 1864) to re- 
vive the grade of lieutenant-general in the United States x\rmy, 
approved February 29, 1864, Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, 
United States Army, is assigned to the command of the armies of the 
United States. 

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 6, 1864. 

The public debt on the ist day of July last, as appears by the books 
of the Treasury, amounted to $1,740,690,489.49. Probably, should 
the war continue for another year, that amount may be increased by 
not far from five hundred millions. Held, as it is, for the most part 
by our own people, it has become a substantial branch of national, 
though private, property. For obvious reasons the more nearly this 
property can be distributed among all the people the better. To favor 
such general distribution, greater inducements to become owners 
might, perhaps, with good effect and without injury be presented to 
persons of limited means. With this view I suggest whether it might 
not be both competent and expedient for Congress to provide that a 
limited amount of some future issue of public securities might be held 
by any bona fide purchaser exempt from taxation and from seizure for 
debt, under such restrictions and limitations as might be necessary to 
guard against abuse of so important a privilege. This would enable 
every prudent person to set aside a small annuity against a possible 
day of want. 

The great enterprise of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific 
States by railways raid telegraph lines has been entered upon with a 
vigor that gives assurances of success, notwithstanding the embarrass- 
ments arising from the prevailing high prices of materials and labor. 
The route of the main line of the road has been definitely located for 
100 miles westward from the initial point of Omaha City, Nebr., and a 



"Abraham Lincoln 425 

preliminary location of the Pacific Railroad of California has been 
made from Sacramento eastward to the great bend of the Truckee 
River in Nevada. 

Numerous discoveries of gold, silver, and cmnabar mines have been 
added to the many heretofore known, and the country occupied by 
the Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountains and the subordinate ranges 
now teems with enterprising labor, which is richly remunerative. 
It is believed that the product of the mines of precious metals in that 
region has during the year reached, if not exceeded, one hundred mil- 
lions in value. 

The most remarkable feature in the military operations of the year 
is General Sherman's attempted march of 300 miles directly through 
the insurgent region. It tends to show a great increase of our relative 
strength that our General-in-Chief should feel able to confront and 
hold in check every active force of the enemy, and yet to detach a well- 
appointed large arm.y to move on such an expedition. The result not 
yet being known, conjecture in regard to it is not here indulged. 

Important movements have also occurred during the year to the 
efifect of molding society for durability in the Union. Although short 
of complete success, it is much in the right direction that 12,000 
citizens in each of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana have organ- 
ized loyal State governments, with free constitutions, and are earnestly 
struggling to maintain and administer them. The movements in the 
same direction, more extensive though less definite, in Missouri, Ken- 
tucky, and Tennessee should not be overlooked. But Maryland pre- 
sents the example of complete success. Maryland is secure to liberty 
and union for all the future. The genius of rebellion will no more 
claim Maryland. Like another foul spirit being driven out, it may 
seek to tear her, but it will woo her no more. 

At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment of the Con- 
stitution abolishing slavery throughout the L'''nited States passed the 
Senate, but failed for lack of the requisite two-thirds vote in the House 
of Representatives. Although the present is the same Congress and 
nearly the same members, and without questioning the wisdom or 
patriotism of those who stood in opposition, I venture to recommend 
the reconsideration r.nd passage of the measure at the present session. 
Of course the abstract question is not changed; but an intervening 
election shows almost certainly that the next Congress will pass the 
measure if this does not. Hence there is only a question of time 
as to when the proposed amendment will go to the States for their 



426 History of the United States. 

action. And as it is to so go at all events, may we not agree that the 
sooner the better? It is not claimed that the election has imposed a 
duty on members to change their views or their votes any further 
than, as an additional element to be considered, their judgments may be 
affected by it. It is the voice of the people now for the first time heard 
upon the question. In a great national crisis like ours unanimity of 
action among those seeking a common end is very desirable — almost 
indispensable. And yet no approach to such unanimity is attainable 
unless some deference shall be paid to the will of the majority simply 
because it is the will of the majority. In this case the common end is 
the maintenance of the Union, and among the means to secure that 
end such will, through the election, is most clearly declared in favor 
of such constitutional amendment. 

The most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is de- 
rived through our popular elections. Judging by the recent canvass 
and its result, the purpose of the people within the loyal States to 
maintain the integrity of the Union was never more firm nor more 
nearly unanimous than now. The extraordinary calmness and good 
order with which the millions of voters met and mingled at the polls 
give strong assurance of this. Not only all those who supported the 
Union ticket, so called, but a great majority of the opposing party also 
may be fairly claimed to entertain and to be actuated by the same 
purpose. It is an unanswerable argument to this effect that no 
candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has ventured to seek 
votes on the avowal that he was for giving up the Union. There 
have been much impugning of motives and much heated controversy 
as to the proper means and best mode of advancing the Union cause, 
but on the distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians have 
shown their instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among the 
people. In affording the people the fair opportunity of showing one 
to another and to the world this firmness and unanimity of purpose, 
the election has been of vast value to the national cause. 

The national resources are unexhausted, and, as we believe, in- 
exhaustible. The public purpose to re-establish and maintain the 
national authority is unchanged, and, as we believe, unchangeable. 

The manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On care- 
ful consideration of all the evidence accessible it seems to me that 
no attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in 
any good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union, 
precisely what we will not and can not give. His declarations to 




HOUSE IN WASHINGTON WHERE LINCOLN DIED. 







CARTOON OF THE NEW WOMAN OF LINCOLN S ADMINISTRATION. 







i' 



BEGINNING OF WOMEX's RIGHTS AGITATION IX LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



Abraham Lincoln. 429 

this effect are explicit and oft repeated. He does not attempt to de- 
ceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive ourselves. He 
can not voluntarily reaccept the Union; we can not voluntarily 
yield it. Between him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and in- 
flexible. It is an issue which can only be tried by war and decided by 
victory. If we yield, we are beaten; if the Southern people fail him, 
he is beaten. Either way it would be the victory and defeat following 
war. What is true, however, of him who heads the insurgent cause 
is not necessarily true of those who follow. Although he can not 
reaccept the Union, they can. Some of them, we know, already de- 
sire peace and reunion. The number of such may increase. They 
can at any moment have peace simply by laying down their arms and 
submitting to the national authority under the Constitution. After 
so much the Government could not, if it would, maintain war against 
them. The loyal people would not sustain or allow it. If questions 
should remain, we would adjust them by the peaceful means of 
legislation, conference, courts, and votes, operating only in constitu- 
tional and lawful channels. Some certain, and other possible, ques- 
tions are and would be beyond the Executive power to adjust; as, for 
instance, the admission of members into Congress and whatever might 
require the appropriation of money. The Executive power itself 
would be greatly diminished by the cessation of actual war. Pardons 
and remissions of forfeitures, however, would still be within Execu- 
tive control. In what spirit and temper this control would be exer- 
cised can be fairly judged of by the past. 

A year ago general pardon and amnesty, upon specified terms, 
were offered to all except certain designated classes, and it was at the 
same time made known that the excepted classes were still within 
contemplation of special clemency. During the year many availed 
themselves of the general provision, and many more would, only that 
the signs of bad faith in some led to such precautionary measures as 
rendered the practical process less easy and certain. During the 
same time also special pardons have been granted to individuals of the 
excepted classes, and no voluntary application has been denied. 
Thus practically the door has been for a full year open to all except 
such as were not in condition to make free choice; that is. such as 
were in custody or under constraint. It is still so open to all. But 
the time may come, probably will come, when public duty shall de- 
mand that it be closed and that in lieu more rigorous measures than 
heretofore shall be adopted. 



430 History of the United States. 

In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national 
authority on the part of the insurgents as the only indispensable con- 
dition to ending the war on the part of the Government, I retract noth- 
ing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a 
year ago, that " while I remain in my present position I shall not at- 
tempt to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation, nor shall I 
return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclama- 
tion or by any of the acts of Congress." If the people should, by 
whatever mode or means, make it an Executive duty to re-enslave 
such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to per- 
form it. 

In stating a single condition of peace I mean simply to say that the 
war will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have 
ceased on the part of those who began it. 

second inaugural address, march 4, 1865. 

At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office 
there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the 
first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued 
seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, dur- 
ing which public declarations have been constantly called forth on 
every point and phase of that great contest which still absorbs the 
attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new 
could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else 
chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, 
I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high 
hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts 
were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all 
sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered 
from this place, devoted altogether to saiing the Union without war, 
insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war — 
seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both 
parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than 
let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let 
it perish, and the war came. 

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distrib- 
uted generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. 
These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew 
that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, 



Abraham Lincoln. 431 

perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the in- 
surgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government 
claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlarge- 
ment of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the 
duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the 
cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself 
should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less 
fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to 
the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may 
seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance 
in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let 
us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not 
be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Al- 
nn'ghty has His own purposes. " Woe unto the world because of 
offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that 
man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that Ameri- 
can slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, 
nmst needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed 
time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and 
South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense 
came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine at- 
tributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? 
Fondly do we hope, ferv^ently do we pray, that this mighty scourge 
of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue 
until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty 
years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood 
drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, 
as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said " the 
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the 
right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work 
we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall 
have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all 
which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among our- 
selves and with all nations. 



Andrew Johnson, Jlce-Prcsidcut of the United States: 

Sir: Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, was shot 
by an assassin last evening at Ford's Theater, in this city, and died at 
the hour of twenty-two minutes after 7 o'clock. April 15, 1865. 



432 History of the United States. 

About ihc same time at which the President was shot an assassin 
entered the sick chainber of the Hon. Wilham H. Seward, Secretary 
oi State, and stabbed him in several places — in the throat, neck and 
face — severely if not mortally wounding him. Other members of 
the Secretary's family were dangerously wounded by the assassin while 
making his escape. By the death of President Lincoln the office of 
President has devolved, vmder the Constitution, upon you. The 
emergency of the Government demands that you should immediately 
qualify, according to the requirements of the Constitution, and enter 
upon the duties of I'resident of the United States. If you will please 
make known your pleasure, such arrangements as you deem proper 
will be made. 

Your obedient servants, 

HUGH Mcculloch, w. dennison, 

Secretary of the Treasur\. Postmaster-General. 

EDWIN M. STANTON,' J. P. USHER, 

Secretary of War. Secretary of the Interior. 

GIDEON WELLES, JAMES SPEED, 

Secretary of Navy. Attornev-General. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN was born in Hardin county, Ky., Feb- 
ruary 12, 1S09. He was the second son of Thomas Lincoln, 
whose ancestor came from England and settled in Hingham, 
Mass. His mother was Miss Nancy Hanks, a woman, according to 
Holland, out of place among her primitive surroundings with her 
sensitive, heroic nature. " My early history," said Lincoln, " is per- 
fectly characterized by a single line of Gray's Elegy : * The short 
and simple annals of the poor.' " In 1816 his father moved to In- 
diana and settled on Little Pigeon Creek, not far from the Ohio River, 
where Abraham applied himself with avidity to acquiring an education. 
His father remained there until 1830. when he located in Macon 
county, 111., and soon after went to Coles county. 111., where he died 
in 185 1. While employed as clerk in a pioneer store at New Salem, 
he acquired the soubriquet of " Honest Abe," an abbreviation that 
he never outgrew. He also studied surveying and law. President 



Abraham Lincoln. 433 

Jackson appointed iiini postmaster of New Salem in 1833. He held 
this office three years, and was the same time deputy county surveyor. 
He served in the legislature from 1834 to 1840, when he declined 
further election. He went to Springfield in 1837, entered into part- 
nership with John T. Stuart, and began to practice law. He married 
Miss Mary Todd, November 4, 1842. He was member of Congress 
in 1846, and served one term, but declined re-election. While member 
he advocated abolitioning of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
When the Republican party was organized he became its leader in 
Illinois. He was nominated by the Republicans for President in May, 
i860, and elected the 6th of the November following. He was re- 
elected November, 1864, and inaugurated March 4, 1865, and shot 
by an assassin at Ford's Theater in Washington, April 14, 1865, and 
died at twenty-two minutes past seven on the morning of April 15th, 
at the house of a Mr. Peterson in Tenth street. He was buried at 
Oak Ridge, Springfield, 111. 



434 



History of the United States. 




BIRTHPLACE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. AT RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA. 



CHAPTER XVII 



ANDREW JOHNSON AS A PATRIOT. 



By Hon. Champ Clark, Congressman from Missouri. 



''T^ WO American Presidents have received an exceedingly cold deal in 
history, John Tyler and Andrew Johnson. This grows largely out ni 
the fact that the New Englanders write all the histories. 

The three facts which will forever keep Andrew Johnson's name alive are 
that he rose from a tailor's bench to be chief magistrate of the Republic; 
that he was the only Senator of the United States from any seceding State 
that remained faithful to the Union, and that he was the only President of the 
United States that was ever impeached, although bills of impeachment were 
prepared against John Tyler, a fact not generally known. 

Not only is there great prejudice against Andrew Johnson in the public 
mind, but his talents are also greatly underrated. In integrity of purpose, in 






Andrew Johnson. 435 

personal and moral courage, in intensity of patriotism he has had no superior 
among our Presidents. That his impeachment marks one of the most danger- 
ous epochs of American history there can now be no question among people 
whose opinion is at all worthy of respect. Even intelligent Republicans now 
take this view of the matter. 

Not long since in a lecture delivered before a college in this city, Mr. Justice 
John M. Harlan, of the Supreme Court of the United States, stated that as his 
opinion. He is certainly a competent witness. 

The people of the North have never realized, and, perhaps, never will realize, 
the courage that was required for a man to stand for the Union in 1861 in 
Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia or Maryland. It was as easy as fallin.5 
of? a log, a slippery log at that, for a man to be for the Union in Massa- 
chusetts. It was unprofitable to be anything else. It was easy to be a 
Confederate in South Carolina. It was dangerous to be otherwise. But in 
what are known as the " border States," including Tennessee, it was ex- 
tremely hazardous to be one or the other. The truth is, that there really w.is 
no civil war anywhere to any considerable extent outside of these " border 
States." So far as the extreme Northern States or the extreme Southern 
States were concerned what we term Civil war was to all intents and purposes 
a war between two countries foreign to each other. But in the " border 
States " it was not only neighborhood against neighborhood, but family 
against family, father against son, husband against wife, slave against master. 
That Johnson or any other man had the moral and physical courage to stand 
up against an overwhelming sentiment in his own State in that critical era is 
one of the marvels of history. 

At the time of the firing on Fort Sumter he was not only one of the ablest 
men in the Senate from the South, but was also one of the most popular. At 
that time it appeared that by going with the Soutu there was no station 
beyond his reach, and that by going with the North he had absolutely nothing 
to hope for in the way of political preferment. But man proposes and God 
disposes, and by adhering to the Union he became President of the United 
States. 

It is a fact knov.ai of all men who have turned their minds to a contemplation 
of the subject that for a man to sever his political relations or to run counter 
on any great question to the sentiments of the community or State in which 
he lived was, is and must always be a most painful performance. That Johnson 
felt this there can be no question: but his love of the Union outweighed all 
other considerations, and he gave it a courageous, consistent and powerful 
support. His position probably fixed the position of thousands of Ten- 
ncsseeans, for that State furnished nearly 40,000 white soldiers for the Union 



436 



History of the United States. 



armies, most of tliciu recruited from that portion of the State in which 
Johnson resided, and in which he had always had his greatest poHtical in- 
fluence. His love of the Union was supreme. He always said in his stump 
speeches that when he died he wanted to be buried with the stars and stripes 
for a winding sheet, and his wishes in this regard were gratified. 

]\Iy own opinion about the matter is that he was impeached for under- 
taking to carry out the policy of reconciliation which Abraham Lincoln would 
have successfully carried out if he had lived. Lincoln would not have been 
impeached for doing what Johnson tried to do, because he was too strong in 
the hearts of what he affectionately called " the plain people of America," but 
that he would have suffered in popularity for so doing, there can be no 
question. But Johnson, being a Southerner, was under suspicion of radical 
Republicans from the start. 

If a true history of the United States is ever written, while Andrew Johnson 
will not stand in the front rank of American statesmen, he will unquestionably 
stand in the front rank of American patriots. He did more, and risked more, 
to preserve the Union than was done by all the men combined who voted for 
his conviction. I love to remember that General John B. Henderson of 
Missouri, a Republican Senator, saved the Republic from that stupendous 
calamity and burning shame. 





SEVENTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Andrew Johnson. 439 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1865-1869. 



By Andrew Johnson. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, APRIL 1 5, 1865. 

I MUST be permitted to say that I have been almost overwhelmed 
by the announcement of the sad event which has so recently 
occurred. I feel incompetent to perform duties so important 
and responsible as those which have been so unexpectedly thrown 
upon me. As to an indication of any policy which may be pursued 
by me in the administration of the Government, I have to say that 
that must be left for development as the Administration progresses. 
The message or declaration must be made by the acts as they tran- 
spire. The only assurance that I can now give of the future is refer- 
ence to the past. The course which I have taken in the past in con- 
nection with this rebellion must be regarded as a guaranty of the 
future. My past public life, which has been long and laborious, has 
been founded, as I in good conscience believe, upon a great principle 
of right, which lies at the basis of all things. The best energies of 
m}- life have been spent in endeavoring to establish and perpetuate the 
principles of free government, and I believe that the Government in 
passing through its present perils will settle down upon principles 
consonant with popular rights more permanent and enduring than 
heretofore. I must be permitted to say, if I understand the feeHngs 
of my own heart, that I have long labored to ameliorate and elevate 
the condition of the great mass of the American people. Toil and an 
honest advocacy of the great principles of free government have 
been my lot. Duties have been mine; consequences are God's. This 
has been the foundation of my political creed, and I feel that in the 
end the Government will triumph and that these great principles will 
be permanently established. 

Whereas, by my direction (April 25, 1865) the Acting Secretary 
of State, in a notice to the public of the 17th, requested the various 
religious denominations to assemble on the 19th instant, on the occa- 



440 History of the United States. 

sion of the obsequies of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the 
United States, and to observe the same with appropriate ceremonies; 
but 

Whereas our country has become one great house of mourning, 
where the head of the family has been taken away, and believing 
that a special period should be assigned for again humbling ourselves 
before Almighty God, in order that the bereavement may be sancti- 
fied to the nation: 

Now, therefore, in order to mitigate that grief on earth which can 
only be assuaged by communion with the Father in Heaven, and in 
compliance with the wishes of Senators and Representatives in Con- 
gress, communicated to me by resolutions adopted at the National 
Capitol, T, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby 
appoint Thursday, the 25th day of May next, to be observed, wherever 
in the United States the flag of the country may be respected, as a 
day of humiliation and mourning, and I recommend my fellow-citizens 
then to assemble in their respective places of worship, there to unite 
in solemn service to Almighty God in memory of the good man who 
has been removed, so that all shall be occupied at the same time in 
contemplation of his virtues and in sorrow for his sudden and violent 
end. 



Whereas it appears (May 2, 1865) from evidence in the Bureau of 
Military Justice that the atrocious murder of the late President, 
Abraham Lincoln, and the attempted assassination of the Hon. William 
H. Seward, Secretary of State, were incited, concerted, and procured 
by and between Jefiferson Davis, late of Richmond, Va., and Jacob 
Thompson, Clement C. Clay, Beverley Tucker, George N. Sanders, 
William C. Cleary, and other rebels and traitors against the Govern- 
ment of the United States harbored in Canada: 

Now, therefore, to the end that justice may be done, I, Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, do offer and promise for 
the arrest of said persons, or either of them, within the limits of the 
United States, so that they can be brought to trial, the following 
rewards: 

One hundred thousand dollars for the arrest of Jefiferson Davis. 

Twenty-five thousand dollars for the arrest of Clement C. Clay. 

Twenty-five thousand dollars for the arrest of Jacob Thompson, 
late of Mississippi. 



Andrew Johnson. 441 

Twenty-five thousand dollars for the arrest of George N. Sanders. 

Twenty-five thousand dollars for the arrest of Beverley Tucker. 

Ten thousand dollars for the arrest of William C. Clcary, late clerk 
of Clement C. Clay. 

The Provost-Marshal-General of the United States is directed to 
cause a description of said persons, with notice of the above rewards, 
to be published. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 4, 1865, 

The Constitution is the work of " the people of the United States," 
and it should be as indestructible as the people. 

It is not strange that the framers of the Constitution, which had no 
model in the past, should not have fully comprehended the excellence 
of their own work. Fresh from a struggle against arbitrary power, 
many patriots suffered from harassing fears of an absorption of the 
State governments by the General Government, and many from a 
dread that the States would break away from their orbits. But the 
very greatness of our country should allay the apprehension of en- 
croachments by the General Government. The subjects that come 
unquestionably within its jurisdiction are so numerous that it must 
even naturally refuse to be embarrassed by questions that lie beyond it. 
Were it otherwise the Executive would sink beneath the burden, the 
channels of justice would be choked, legislation would be obstructed 
by excess, so that there is a greater temptation to exercise some of 
the functions of the General Government through the States than to 
trespass on their rightful sphere. The " absolute acquiescence in the 
decisions of the majority " was at the beginning of the century en- 
forced by Jefferson as "the vital principle of Republics;" and the 
events of the last four years have established, we will hope forever, 
that there lies no appeal to force. 

The maintenance of the Union brings with it " the support of the 
State governments in all their rights," but it is not one of the rights 
of any State government to renounce its own place in the Union or 
to nullify the laws of the Union. The largest liberty is to be main- 
tained in the discussion of the acts of the Federal Government, but 
there is no appeal from its laws except to the various branches of that 
Government itself, or to the people, who grant to the members of the 
legislative and of the executive departments no tenure but a limited 
one, and in that manner always retain the powers of redress. 



.].] 2 History of the United States. 

" The sovereignty of the States " is the language of the Confederacy, 
and not the language of the Constitution. The latter contains the 
emphatic words — 

This Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in 
pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made under the 
authorit}^ of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the 
judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or 
laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

Certainly the Government of the United States is a limited govern- 
ment, and so is every State government a limited government. With 
us this idea of limitation spreads through every form of adiuinistra- 
tion — general, State, and municipal — and rests on the great distin- 
guishing principle of the recognition of the rights of man. The 
ancient republics absorbed the individual in the state — prescribed his 
religion and controlled his activity. The American systein rests on 
the assertion of the equal right of every man to life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness, to freedom of conscience, to the culture and ex- 
ercise of all his faculties. As a consequence the State government is 
limited — as to the General Government in the interest of union, as 
to the individual citizen in the interest of freedom. 

States, with proper limitations of power, are essential to the ex- 
istence of the Constitution of the United States. At the very com- 
mencement, when we assumed a place among the powers of the earth, 
the Declaration of Independence was adopted by States; so also were 
the Articles of Confederation; and when "the people of the United 
States " ordained and established the Constitution it was the assent of 
the States, one by one, which gave it vitality. In the event, too, of 
any amendment to the Constitution, the proposition of Congress needs 
the confirmation of States. Without States one great branch of the 
legislative government would be wanting. And if we look beyond 
the letter of the Constitution to the character of our country, its 
capacity for cotnprehending within its jurisdiction a vast continental 
empire is due to the system of States. The best security for the per- 
petual existence of the States is the " supreme authority " of the Con- 
stitution of the United States. The perpetuity of the Constitution 
brings with it the perpetuity of the States; their mutual relation makes 
us what we are, and in our political system their connection is indis- 
soluble. The whole can not exist without the parts, nor the parts 



Andrew Johnson. 443 

without the whole. So long as the Constitution of the United States 
endures, the States will endure. The destruction of the one is the 
destruction of the other; the preservation of the one is the preservation 
of the other. 

I have thus explained my views of the mutual relations of the Con- 
stitution and the States, because they unfold the principles on which I 
have sought to solve the momentous questions and overcome the ap- 
palling difficulties that met me at the very commencement of my Ad- 
ministration. It has been my steadfast object to escape from the sway 
of momentary passions and to derive a healing policy fi"om the funda- 
mental and unchanging principles of the Constitution. 

I found the States sufifering from the effects of a civil war. Re- 
sistance to the General Government appeared to have exhausted itself. 
The United States had recovered possession of their forts and arsenals, 
and their armies were in the occupation of every State which had at- 
tempted to secede. Whether the territory within the limits of those 
States should be held as conquered territory, under military authority 
emanating from the President as the head of the Army, was the first 
question that presented itself for decision. 

>Jow military governments, established for an indefinite period, 
would have offered no security for the early suppression of discontent, 
would have divided the people into the vanquishers and the van- 
quished, and would have envenomed hatred rather than have restored 
affection. Once established, no precise limit to their continuance was 
conceivable. They would have occasioned an incalculable and ex- 
hausting expense. Peaceful emigration to and from that portion of 
the country is one of the best means that can be thought of for the res- 
toration of harmony, and that emigration would have been prevented; 
for what emigrant from abroad, what industrious citizen at home, 
would place himself willingly under military rule? The chief persons 
who would have followed in the train of the Army would have been 
dependents on the General Government or men who expected profit 
from the miseries of their erring fellow-citizens. The powers of pat- 
ronage and rule which would have been exercised, under the Presi- 
dent, over a vast and populous and naturally wealthy region are 
greater than, unless under extreme necessity, I should be willing to 
intrust to any one man. They are such as, for myself, I could never, 
unless on occasions of great emergency, consent to exercise. The 
willful use of such powers, if continued through a period of years, 
would have endangered the purity of the general administration and 
the liberties of the States which remained loyal. 



444 History of the United States. 

•Besides, the policy of military rule over a conquered territory would 
have implied that the States whose inhabitants may have taken part 
in the rebellion had by the act of those inhabitants ceased to exist. 
But the true theory is that all pretended acts of secession were from 
the beginning null and void. The States can not commit treason nor 
screen the individual citizens who may have committed treason any 
more than they can make valid treaties or engage in lawful com- 
merce with any foreign power. The States attempting to secede 
placed themselves in a condition where their vitality was impaired, 
but not extinguished; their functions suspended, but not destroyed. 

The next step which I have taken to restore the constitutional rela- 
tions of the States has been an invitation to them to participate in the 
high office of amending the Constitution. Every patriot must wish for 
a general amnesty at the earliest epoch consistent with public safety. 
For this great end there is need of a concurrence of all opinions and 
the spirit of nuitual conciliation. 

I knov/ that sincere philanthropy is earnest for the immediate real- 
ization of its remotest aims; but time is always an element in reform. 
It is one of the greatest acts on record to have brought 4,000,000 peo- 
ple into freedom. The career of free industry must be fairly opened 
to them, and then their future prosperity and condition must, after all, 
rest mainly on themselves. If they fail, and so perish away, let u; 
be careful that the failure shall not be attributable to any denial of jus- 
tice. 



In reply to the resolution adopted December 18, 1865, by the Sen- 
ate on the 1 2th instant, I have the honor to state that the Rebellion 
waged by a portion of the people against the properly constituted au- 
thority of the Government of the United States has been suppressed; 
that the United States are in possession of every State in which the 
insurrection existed, and that, as far as it could be done, the courts of 
the United States have been restored, post-offices re-established, and 
steps taken to put into effective operation the revenue laws of the 
country. 

As the result of the measures instituted by the Executive with the 
view of inducing a resumption of the functions of the States compre- 
hended in the inquiry of the Senate, the people of North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana. Arkansas, 
and Tennessee have reorganized their respective State governments. 



Andrew Johnson. 445' 

and " are yielding obedience to the laws and Government of the 
United States " with more wilHngness and greater promptitude than 
under the circumstances could reasonably have been anticipated. 
The proposed amendment to the Constitution, providing for the aboli- 
tion of slavery forever within the limits of the country, has been ratified 
by each one of those States, with the exception of Mississippi, from 
which no ofificial information has been received, and in nearly all of 
them measures have been adopted or are now pending to confer upon 
freedmen the privileges which are essential to their comfort, protec- 
tion, and security. In Florida and Texas the people are making com- 
mendable progress in restoring their State governments, and no doubt 
is entertained that they will at an early period be in a condition to re- 
sume all of their practical relations with the General Government. 

SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 3, 1866. 

In my message of the 4th of December, 1865, Congress was in- 
formed of the measures which had been instituted by the Executive 
with a view to the gradual restoration of the States in which the in- 
surrection occurred to their relations with the General Government. 
Provisional governors had been appointed, conventions called, gov- 
ernors elected, legislatures assembled, and Senators and Representa- 
tives chosen to the Congress of the United States. Courts had been 
opened for the enforcement of laws long in abeyance. The blockade 
had been removed, custom-houses re-established, and the internal 
revenue laws put in force, in order that the people might contribute 
to the national income. Postal operations had been renewed, and 
efforts were being made to restore them to their former condition of 
efficiency. The States themselves had been asked to take part in 
the high function of amending the Constitution, and of thus sanction- 
ing the extinction of African slavery as one of the legitimate results 
of our internecine struggle. 

Having progressed thus far, the Executive Department found that it 
had accomplished nearly all that was within the scope of its constitu- 
tional authority. One thing, however, yet remained to be done be- 
fore ihe work of restoration could be completed, and that was the 
admission to Congress of loyal Senators and Representatives from the 
States whose people, had rebelled against the lawful authority of the 
General GoAxrnment. This question devolved upon the respective 
Houses, which by the Constitution are made the judges of the elec- 



446 History of the United States. 

tions, returns, and qualifications of their own members, and its con- 
sideration at once engaged the attention of Congress. 

In the meantime the Executive Department — no other plan having 
been proposed by Congress — continued its efforts to perfect, as far 
as was practicable, the restoration of the proper relations between the 
citizens of the respective States, the States, and the Federal Govern- 
ment, extending from time to time, as the public interests seemed to 
require, the judicial, revenue, and postal systems of the country. 
With the advice and consent of the Senate, the necessary officers were 
appointed and appropriations made by Congress for the payment of 
their salaries. The proposition to amend the Federal Constitution, 
so as to prevent the existence of slavery within the United States or 
any place subject to their jurisdiction, was ratified by the requisite 
number of States, and on the i8th day of December, 1865, it was 
officially declared to have become valid as a part of the Constitution 
of the United States. All of the States in which the insurrection had 
existed promptly amended their constitutions so as to make them con- 
form to the great change thus effected in the organic law of the land; 
declared null and void all ordinances and laws of secession; repudiated 
all pretended debts and obligations created for the revolutionary pur- 
poses of the insurrection, and proceeded in good faith to the enact- 
ment of measures for the protection and amelioration of the condition 
of the colored race. Congress, however, yet hesitated to admit any of 
these States to representation, and it was not until toward the close 
of the eighth month of the session that an exception was made in favor 
of Tennessee by the admission of her Senators and Representatives. 

I deem it a subject of profound regret that Congress has thus far 
failed to admit to seats loyal Senators and Representatives from the 
other States whose inhabitants, with those of Tennessee, had engaged 
in the rebellion. Ten States — more than one-fourth of the whole 
number — remain without representation ; the seats of fifty members 
in the House of Representatives and of twenty members in the Senate 
are yet vacant, not by their own consent, not by a failure of election, 
but by the refusal of Congress to accept their credentials. Their ad- 
mission, it is believed, would have accomplished much toward the 
renewal and strengthening of our relations as one people and re- 
moved serious cause for discontent on the part of the inhabitants of 
those States. It would have accorded with the great principle enun- 
ciated in the Declaration of American Independence that no people 
ought to bear the burden of taxation and yet be denied the right of 
representation. It would have been in consonance with the express 



J/-': 



X/ /'/ ',- > / 



/ 



.■//if:'.' A 
(' ' i' /J / , ■ / 

/ 






,' /" / 



■ ^/■rj^/y^''h 



'A 



// / ^ n //V/^ i'/ /</v 



/ // y , / 



r- .'ir 


^' ./ 


/ / 


' / / 


<' /' / / 


/^( J 










J 


y.„ 


,/. 




-' 









'.^^ ^, 



^f-d. 



^«X^ 



THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 






^^-.Z 



\ 









6^ v:-^ y'-..^'./. 






/.r 'r- V. 



/", ^X^'^/ 



■// 



SIGNATURE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON TO THANKSGIVING 
PROCLAMATION. 



Andrew Johnson. 449 

provisions of the Constitution that " each State shall have at least one 
Representative " and " that no State, without its consent, shall be de- 
prived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." 

The admission of loyal members from the States now excluded from 
Congress, by allaying doubt and apprehension would turn capital now 
awaiting an opportunity for investment into the channels of trade and 
industry. It would alleviate the present troubled condition of those 
States, and by inducing emigration aid in the settlement of fertile re- 
gions now uncultivated and lead to an increased production of those 
staples which have added so greatly to the wealth of the nation and 
commerce of the world. New fields of enterprise would be opened 
to our progressive people, and soon the devastations of war would be 
repaired and all traces of our domestic differences effaced from the 
minds of our coiuitrymen. 

In our efforts to preserve " the unity of government which consti- 
tutes us one people " by restoring the States to the condition which 
they held prior to the rebellion, we should be cautious, lest, having 
rescued our nation from perils of threatened disintegration, we resort 
to consolidation, and in the end absolute despotism, as a remedy for 
the recurrence of similar troubles. The war having terminated, and 
with it all occasion for the exercise of powers of doubtful constitu- 
tionality, we should hasten to bring legislation within the boundaries 
prescribed by the Constitution and to return to the ancient landmarks 
established by our fathers for the guidance of succeeding generations. 

The District of Columbia under existing laws is not entitled to that 
representation in the National councils which from our earliest history 
has been uniformly accorded to each Territory established from time 
to time within our limits. It maintains peculiar relations to Congress, 
to whom the Constitution has granted the power of exercising ex- 
clusive legislation over the seat of Government. Our fellow-citizens 
residing in the District, whose interests are thus confided to the special 
guardianship of Congress, exceed in number the population of several 
of our Territories, and no just reason is perceived why a Delegate of 
their choice should not be admitted to a seat in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. No mode seems so appropriate and effectual of enabling 
them to make known their peculiar condition and wants and of secur- 
ing the local legislation adapted to them. I therefore recommend the 
passage of a law authorizing the electors of the District of Columbia 
to choose a Delegate, to be allowed the same rights and privileges as 
a Delegate representing a Territory. The increasing enterprise and 
rapid progress of improvement in the District are highly gratifying, 



450 History of the United States. 

and I trust that the efforts of the municipal authorities to promote the 
prosperity of the national metropolis will receive the efificient and gen- 
erous co-operation of Congress. 

The entire success of the Atlantic telegraph between the coast of 
Ireland and the Province of Newfoundland is an achievement which 
has been justly celebrated in both hemispheres as the opening of an 
era in the progress of civilization. There is reason to expect that 
equal success will attend and even greater results follow the enterprise 
for connecting the two continents through the Pacific Ocean by the 
projected line of telegraph between Kamchatka and the Russian pos- 
sessions in America. 

The West India islands were settled and colonized by European 
States simultaneously with the settlement and colonization of the Amer- 
ican continent. Most of the colonies planted here became independent 
nations in the close of the last and the beginning of the present cen- 
tury. Our own country embraces communities which at one period 
were colonies of Great Britain, France, Spain, Holland, Sweden, and 
Russia. The people in the West Indies, with the exception of those 
of the island of Hayti, have neither attained nor aspired to independ- 
ence, nor have they become prepared for self-defense. Although pos- 
sessing considerable commercial value, they have been held by the sev- 
eral European States which colonized or at some time conquered them, 
chiefly for purposes of military and naval strategy in carrying out 
European policy and designs in regard to this continent. In our Rev- 
olutionary War ports and harbors in the West India islands were used 
by our enemy, to the great injury and embarrassment of the United 
States. We had the same experience in our second war with Great 
Britain. The same European policy for a long time excluded us 
even from trade with the West Indies, while we were at peace with 
all nations. In our recent Civil war the rebels and their piratical and 
blockade-breaking allies found facilities in the same ports for the 
work, which they too successfully accomplished, of injuring and de- 
vastating the commerce which we are now engaged in rebuilding. 
We labored especially under this disadvantage, that European steam 
vessels employed by our enemies found friendly shelter, protection, 
and supplies in West Indian ports, while our naval operations were 
necessarily carried on from our own distant shores. There was then 
a universal feeling of the want of an advanced naval outpost between 
the Atlantic coast and Europe. The duty of obtaining such an out- 
post peacefully and lawfully, while neither doing nor menacing in- 



Andrew Johnson. 451 

jury to other states, earnestly engaged the attention of the executive 
department before the close of the war, and it has not been lost sight 
of since that time. A not entirely dissimilar naval want revealed itself 
during the same period on the Pacific coast. The required foothold 
there was fortunately secured by our late treaty with the Emperor of 
Russia, and it now seems imperative that the more obvious necessities 
of the Atlantic coast should not be less carefully provided for. A good 
and convenient port and harbor, capable of easy defense, will supply 
that want. With the possession of such a station by the United States, 
neither we nor any other American nation need longer apprehend in- 
jury or ofTense from any transatlantic enemy. I agree with our eady 
statesmen that the West Indies naturally gravitate to, and may be ex- 
pected ultimately to be absorbed by, the continental States, including 
our own. I agree with them also that it is wise to leave the question 
of such absorption to this process of natural political gravitation. The 
islands of St. Thomas and St. John, which constitute a part of the 
group called the Virgin Islands, seemed to ofifer us advantages imme- 
diately desirable, while their acquisition could be secured in harmony 
with the principles to which I liave alluded. A treaty has therefore 
been concluded with the King of Denmark for the cession of those 
islands, and will be submitted to the Senate for consideration. 

It will hardly be necessary to call the attention of Congress to the 
subject of providing for the payment to Russia of the sum stipulated in 
the treaty for the cession of Alaska. Possession having been formally 
delivered to our commissioner, the territory remains for the present 
in care of a military force, awaiting such civil organization as shall be 
directed by Congress. 



The President with deep regret announces (June 2, 1868) to the peo- 
ple of the United States the decease, at Wheatland, Pa., on the ist 
instant, of his honored predecess9r James Buchanan. 

This event will occasion mourning in the nation for the loss of an 
eminent citizen and honored public servant. 

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 9, 1868. 

The proportion which the currency of any country should bear to 
the whole value of the annual produce circulated by its means is a 
question upon which political economists have not agreed. Nor can 



'452" History of the United States. 

it be controlled by legislation, but must be left to the irrevocable laws 
which everywhere regulate commerce and trade. The circulating 
medium will ever irresistibly flow to those points where it is in greatest 
demand The law of demand and supply is as unerring as that which' 
regulates the tides of the ocean; and, indeed, currency, like the tides, 
has its ebbs and flows throughout the commercial world. 

At the beginning of the Rebellion the bank-note circulation of the 
country amounted to not much more than $200,000,000; now the circu- 
lation of national-bank notes and those known as " legal-tenders " is 
nearly seven hundred millions. While it is urged by some that this 
amount should be increased, others contend that a decided reduction 
is absolutely essential to the best interests of the country. In view 
of these diverse opinions, it may be well to ascertain the real value of 
our paper issues when compared with a metallic or convertible cur- 
. rency For this purpose let us incjuire how much gold and silver 
could be purchased by the seven hundred millions of paper money now 
in circulation. Probably not more than half the amount cf the latter; 
showing that when our paper currency is compared with gold and 
silver its commercial value is compressed into three hundred and fifty 
millions. This striking fact makes it the obvious duty of the Govern- 
ment, as early as may be consistent with the principles of sound politi- 
cal economy, to take such measures as will enable the holders of its 
notes and those of the national banks to convert them, without loss, 
into specie or its equivalent. A reduction of our paper circulating 
medium need not necessarily follow. This, however, would depend 
upon the law of demand and supply, though it should be borne in 
mind that by making legal-tender and bank notes convertible into 
coin or its equivalent their present specie value in the hands of their 
holders would be enhanced 100 per cent. 

Legislation for the accomplishment of a result so desirable is de- 
manded by the highest public considerations. The Constitution con- 
templates that the circulating medium of the country shall be uniform 
in quality and value. At the time of the formation of that instrument 
the country had just emerged from the War of the Revolution, and 
was suffering from the effects of a redundant and worthless paper cur- 
rency. The sages of that period were anxious to protect their posterity 
from the evils which they themselves had experienced. Hence in pro- 
viding a circulating medium they conferred upon Congress the power 
to coin money and regulate the value thereof, at the same time pro- 
hibiting the States from making anything but gold and silver a tender 
in payment of debts. r 



Andrew Johnson. 453 

The anomalous condition of our currency is in striking contrast 
with that which was originally designed. Our circulation now em- 
braces, first, notes of the national banks, which are made receivable for 
all dues to the Government, excluding imposts, and by all its creditors, 
excepting in payment of interest upon its bonds and the securities 
themselves; second, legal tender, issued by the United States, and 
which the law requires shall be received as well in payment of all debts 
between citizens as of all Government dues, excepting imposts; and, 
third, gold and silver coin. By the operation of our present system 
of finance, however, the metallic currency, when collected, is reserved 
only for one class of Government creditors, who, holding its bonds, 
semi-annually receive their interest in coin from the National Treasury. 
There is no reason which will be accepted as satisfactory by the people 
why those who defend us on the land and protect us on the sea; the 
pensioner upon the gratitude of the nation, bearing the scars and 
wounds received while in its service ; the public servants in the various 
departments of the Government; the farmer who supplies the soldiers 
of the Army and the sailors of the Navy; the artisan who toils in the 
nation's workships, or the mechanics and laborers who build its edi- 
fices and construct its forts and vessels of war, should, in payment 
of their just and hard-earned dues, receive depreciated paper, while 
another class of their countrymen, no more deserving, are paid in coin 
of gold and silver. Equal and exact justice requires that all the 
creditors of the Government should be paid in a currency possessing 
a uniform value. This can only be accomplished by the restoration 
of the currency to the standard established by the Constitution, and 
by this means we would remove a discrimination which may, if it has 
not already done so, create a prejudice that may become deep-rooted 
and widespread and imperil the national credit. 

The feasibility of making our currency correspond with the constitu- 
tional standard may be seen by reference to a few facts derived from 
our commercial statistics. 

The aggregate product of precious metals in the United States from 
1849 to 1867 amounted to $1,174,000,000, while for the same period 
the net exports of specie were $741,000,000. This shows an excess of 
product over net exports of $433,000,000. There are in the Treasury 
$103,407,985 in coin; in circulation in the States on the Pacific Coast 
about $40,000,000, and a few millions in the national and other banks 
— in all less than $160,000,000. Taking into consideration the specie 
in the country prior to 1849 and that produced since 1867, and we 



454 History of the United States. 

have more than $300,000,000 not accounted for by exportation or by 
returns of the Treasury, and therefore most probably remaining in 
the country. 

These are important facts, and show how completely the inferior 
currency will supersede the better, forcing it from circulation among 
the masses and causing it to be exported as a mere article of trade, to 
add to the money capital of foreign lands. They show the necessity 
of retiring our paper money, that the return of gold and silver to the 
avenues of trade may be invited and a demand created which will 
cause the retention at home of at least so much of the productions 
of our rich and inexhaustible gold-bearing fields as may be sufficient 
for purposes of circulation. It is unreasonable to expect a return to a 
sound currency so long as the Government and banks, by continuing 
to issue irredeemable notes, fill the channels of circulation with de- 
preciated paper. Notwithstanding a coinage by our mints since 1849 
of $874,000,000, the people are now strangers to the currency which 
was designed for their use and benefit, and specimens of the precious 
metals bearing the national device are seldom seen, except when pro- 
duced to gratify the interest excited by their novelty. If depreciated 
paper is to be continued as the permanent currency of the country, 
and all our coin is to become a mere article of traffic and speculation, 
to the enhancement in price of all that is indispensable to the comfort 
of the people, it would be wise economy to abolish our mints, thus 
saving the nation the care and expense incident to such establish- 
ments, and let our precious metals be exported in bullion. The time 
has come, however, when the Government and national banks should 
be required to take the most efficient steps and make all necessary ar- 
rangements for a resumption of specie payments. Let specie pay- 
ments once be earnestly inaugurated by the Government and banks, 
ajid the value of the paper circulation would directly approximate a 
specie standard. 

Specie payments having been resumed by the Government and 
banks, all notes or bills of paper issued by either of a less denomina- 
tion than $20 should by law be excluded from circulation, so that the 
people may have the benefit and convenience of a gold and silver cur- 
rency which in all their business transactions will be uniform in valut 
at home and abroad. 

The acquisition of Alaska was made with the view of extending 
national jurisdiction and republican principles in the American hemi- 
sphere. Believing that a further step could be taken in the same direc- 



Andrew Johnson. 455 

tion, I last year entered into a treaty with the King of Denmark for the 
purchase of the islands of St. Thomas and St. John, on the best terms 
then attainable, and with the express consent of the people of those 
islands. This treaty still remains under consideration in the Senate. 
A new convention has been entered into with Denmark, enlarging the 
time fixed for final ratification of the original treaty. 

The attention of the Senate and of Congress is again respectfully 
invited to the treaty for the establishment of commercial reciprocity 
with the Hawaiian Kingdom entered into last year, and already rati- 
fied by that Government. The attitude of the United States toward 
these islands is not very different from that in which they stand toward 
the West Indies. It is known and felt by the Hawaiian Government 
and people that their Government and institutions are feeble and 
precarious; that the United States, being so near a neighbor, would 
be unwilling to see the islands pass under foreign control. Their 
prosperity is contmually disturbed by expectations and alarms of un- 
friendly political proceedings, as well from the United States as from 
other foreign powers. A reciprocity treaty, while it could not mate- 
rially diminish the revenues of the United States, would be a guaranty 
of the good will and forbearance of all nations until the people of the 
islands shall of themselves, at no distant day, voluntarily apply for 
admission into the Union. 



LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 

ANDREW JOHNSON was born December 29, 1808, in Raleigh, 
N. C. His father died from injuries received in saving a per- 
son from drowning, when Andrew was but four years old. 
When ten years of age he was apprenticed to a tailor. He was entirely 
self-educated, and went through many privations and much labor in 
order to satisfy his craving for knowledge. In 1826 he went to Green- 
ville, Tenn., where he worked as a tailor, and where he married Eliza 
McCardle, a woman of education and refinement, who at once became 
his teacher. He was mayor of Greenville from 1830 to 1833. 

In 1835 he was sent to the State legislature from Green and Wash- 
ington counties, and was re-elected in 1839: In 1849 ^^ was elected to 
the State senate of Tennessee, and in 1843 was sent to Congress, and 
was regularly returned until 1853. While there he made his cele- 



456 History of the United States. 

brated defense of the veto power and advocated the Homestead Law. 
He became governor of Tennessee in 1853, and enacted many meas- 
ures to benefit the working people. In 1857 he was elected to the 
United States Senate, where he at once became prominent. His 
steadfast adherence to the Union estranged him from the supporters 
of the South, and in a speech, December, i860, he declared his un- 
yielding opposition to secession, and his fixed determination to stand 
by the Constitution. He remained in the Senate until Lincoln made 
him military governor of Tennessee, in March, 1862. 

He proceeded to Nashville, where he organized a provisional gov- 
ernment for the State. He appealed to the people to uphold the law, 
and to return to their allegiance to the Union. He held Union meet- 
ings through the State, and raised twenty-five regiments for service. 
He finished the railroad from Nashville to the Tennessee River. He 
levied a tax on the rich Southern supporters as he said '" in behalf of 
the many helpless widows, wives and children in the city of Nashville, 
who have been reduced to poverty and wretchedness in consequence 
of their husbands, sons and fathers having been forced into the armies 
of this unholy and nefarious rebellion." He was elected to the Vice- 
Presidency on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln, November 8, 1864. 
President Lincoln died on the morning of April 15, 1865, and Mr. 
Johnson became President. Articles of impeachment were prepared 
and a trial was held when to the honor of the country a verdict of ac- 
quittal was entered. . 

He went to his Tennessee home on retiring from the White House, 
and was elected to the United States Senate in 1875, took his seat at 
the extra session of that year. While at the home of his daughter, 
near Elizabethton, Tenn., he was seized with paralysis, July 30, 1875, 
and died the following day. He was buried in Greenville, Tenn. 




EIGHTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



%/ /^ K>../^.^ ., //. 4C//^/ X^^v I. 



"V 



v^ I ^XiccxawuxVx 



011 



■^ - // , ; ,/ 

"... .^-/ - , v 






^. 



,.- //. 



:,,,,„, ^r/ ■ /.- •< 



/ 



7. 



' f 



' //v^v.- ,. -V, //y,^/,,/ y/,yA:j y ' - 4v'y yy 

/ 






'2//y^£y>f/,/ ,:/ ^.J/,/^ 




PRESIDENT GRANTS PROCLAMATION CALLING FOR AN 
EXTRA SESSION OF THE SENATE. 



Ulysses S. Grant, 



459 




HOME OF U. S. GRANT, AT GALENA, ILLINCS 



CHAPTER XVI II. 



GRANT AS SOLDIER AND STATESMAN. 



By Shelby M. Cullom, Senator from Illinois. 



T T LYSSES SIMPSON GRANT will be remembered by future generations 
^-^ as the greatest soldier of the Nineteenth Century. His achievements as 
an American soldier will be remembered by the world after his career as an 
American President shall be forgotten. I do not mean to intimate that he 
did not make a good President. General Grant's opportunity came to him as 
a soldier, while Abraham Lincoln's came to him as President. 

Lincoln had the opportunity and gained immortality by a steadfast devotion 
to the Constitution, the Union and Liberty; while Grant as the great captain of 
an army of a million men, struck the blows that conquered rebellion, saved 
the Union and made certain the freedom of the slaves in the United States. 

The distinguishing characteristic of General Grant was his capacity to see 
and determine what should be done in war as in peace, followed by an 



460 History of the United States. 

untiring, persistent, unwavering courage to do it. He never vacillated nor 
wavered. He was modest, almost as a maiden, yet conscious of his capacity 
and strength. When President Lincoln inquired of him how he was getting 
along in the battle of the Wilderness he answered, " I will fight it out on this 
hnc if it takes all summer." He had determined that the war should end then 
and there, in victory for the Union army, and in saving the Union. Supplies, 
munitions and men were furnished him; ihe Confederate army was beaten and 
Lee surrendered at Appomattox. 

My first knowledge of General Grant was in the spring of 1861, when he 
came to Springfield, Illinois, to tender his services to Governor Yates as a 
soldier in the cause of the Union. It was some little time before he was given 
a command. Finally, he was commissioned by the Governor as colonel of the 
Twenty-first Illinois. That regiment had unfortunately become somewhat 
demoralized, though a splendid body of men. Colonel Grant started across the 
State with his command. Before he reached the State line and entered 
Missouri, he had one of the best disciplined regiments in the service of the 
Union during the Civil War. I may be permitted to say here that Illinois, the 
State of Lincoln and Grant, with a population of 1,700,000, furnished to the 
Government in defense of the Union 260,000 men. 

General Grant's career as a soldier was one of victory, and by the common 
consent of soldiers and civilians, he became the one man entitled to the 
highest rank and honors, that the nation he did so much to save, could bestow. 
He never appeared ambitious for honors or promotions. He never stood in 
the way of his comrades in arms. He rather sought to do justice by all. He 
was called the " Silent Man," and he was, in the army. He believed in action, 
in " moving on the enemy's works; " " the immediate surrender of the enemy." 

I had the good fortune to see General Grant often from the close of the 
Civil War until his death. In his private and public life he was remarkable for 
his simplicity of manner and confiding disposition with those he knew. He 
was silent with strangers or with men he doubted. His faith in men came 
near involving him in trouble and embarrassment. He loved his family, and 
trusted fully those whom he believed to be his friends. While General Grant 
was known as the " Silent Man " in the army, socially he was one of t'he most 
charming talkers I ever knew. He was a great observer, and in his trip 
around the world he became familiar with the people, their condition, resources, 
and the forms of government of every State and country he visited. 

As President of the United States, General Grant was faithful to his trust. 
He had to deal with questions of reconstruction which followed the close of 
the civil war, and which were, perhaps, as difficult of solution as any in our 
National history. In his first message to Congress he declared that " three 



Ulysses S. Grant. 461 

things were essential to peace, prosperity and fullest development of the Nation. 
First, integrity in fulfilling all our obligations; second, to secure protection to 
the person and property of the citizen of the United States, wherever he may 
choose to move without reference to original nationality, religion, color or 
politics, demanding of the citizen obedience to law; third, union of all States, 
with equal rights, indestructible by any constitutional means." 

These utterances by General Grant in his first message to the people as 
their Chief Magistrate, were fundamental, and gave positive evidence that he 
would be loyal to the Nation's obligations to its creditors, to its citizens, their 
property rights, and that he believed in the indestructibility of our National 
Union under the Constitution. 

President Grant urged upon Congress the importance to the United State? 
of acquiring the island of San Domingo. He regarded it as very desirable on 
account of the richness of its soil and of its geographical position. As Presi- 
dent, he made a treaty with San Domingo, which he submitted to the Senate, 
which failed of ratification, and it called forth the bitter opposition led by an 
eminent Senator from Massachusetts as the policy of the present Administra- 
tion in relation to the Philippines has met with the strong opposition of 
another eminent Senator from that State. 

The policy of President Grant in relation to the financial condition of the 
country afifecting the public credit by the retirement of a portion of the 
volume of greenbacks and the redemption of specie payments, became of great 
importance to the people of the United States. 

From the beginning of his first Administration, he never wavered in a de- 
termination to protect the country from the greenback craze and to bring the 
country after the war and its consequent vast indebtedness, to sound money 
and resumption. During the period between the passage of the Resumption 
Act of 1875, providing for resumption on January r, 1879, there was much 
excitement among the people and charges by good men that an attempt to 
resume would embarrass and, in fact, ruin the people. Yet when the day for 
resumption came, it did not produce any disturbance whatever, and when the 
day passed conditions at once began to improve and the Nation's credit at home 
and abroad was strengthened. 

General Grant was a great patriot, a great soldier, and a great President, who 
after Washington and Lincoln, was the Chief Magistrate during the most 
difificult period in our Nation's history. 




462 History of tiik Uxiteu States. 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1869-1877. 



By Ulysses S. Grant. 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1869. 

THE country having just emerged fro::i a great Rebellion, many 
(juestions will come before it for settlement in the next four 
years which preceding Administrations have never had to deal 
with. In meeting these it is desirable that they should be aproached 
calmly, without prejudice, hate, or sectional pride, remembering that 
the greatest good to the greatest number is the object to be attained. 

This requires security of person, property, and free religious and 
political opinion in every part of our common country, without regard 
to local prejudice. All laws to secure these ends will receive my best 
efforts for their enforcement. 

A great debt has been contracted in securing to us and our posterity 
the Union. The payment of tliis, principal and interest, as well as the 
return to a specie basis as soon as it can be accomplished without 
material detriment to the debtor class or to the country at large, must 
be provided for. To protect the national honor, every dollar of Gov- 
ernment indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise ex- 
pressly stipulated in the contract. Let it be understood that no repu- 
diator of one farthing of our public debt will be trusted in public place, 
and it will go far toward strengthening a credit which ought to be the 
best in the world, and will ultimately enable us to replace the debt with 
bonds bearing less interest than we now pay. To this should be added, 
a faithful collection of the revenue, a strict accountability to the Treas- 
ury for every dollar collected, and the greatest practicable retrench- 
ment in expenditure in every department of Government. 

FIRST AXNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 6, 1 869. 

At the Alarch term Congress by joint resolution authorized the 
Executive to order elections in the States of Virginia, Mississippi, and 
Texas, to submit to them the constitutions which each had previously, 
in convention, framed, and submit the constitutions, either entire or 
in separate parts, to be voted upon, at the discretion of the Executive. 



Ulysses S. Grant. 463 

Under this authority elections were called. In Virginia the election 
took place on the 6th of July, 1869. The governor and lieutenant- 
governor elected have been installed. The legislature met and did 
all required by this resolution and by all the reconstruction acts of 
Congress, and abstained from all doubtful authority. 1 recommend 
that her Senators and Representatives be promptly admitted to their 
seats, and that the State be fully restored to its place in the family of 
States. Elections were called in Mississippi and Texas, to commence 
on the 30th of November, 1869, and to last two days in Mississippi 
and four days in Texas. The elections have taken place, but the re- 
sult is not known. It is to be hoped that the acts of the legislatures 
of these States, when they meet, will be such as to receive your ap- 
proval, and thus close the work of reconstruction. 

Among the evils growing out of the Rebellion, and not yet referred 
to, is that of an irredeemable currency. It is an evil which I hope will 
receive your most earnest attention. It is a duty, and one of the high- 
est duties, of Government to secure to the citizen a medium of ex- 
change of fixed, unvarying value. This implies a return to a specie 
basis, and no substitute for it can be devised. It should be com- 
menced now and reached at the earliest practicable moment consistent 
wnth a fair regard to the interests of the debtor class. Immediate re- 
sumption, if practicable, would not be desirable. It would compel 
the debtor class to pay, beyond their contracts, the premium on gold 
at the date of their purchase, and would bring bankruptcy and ruin to 
thousands. Fluctuation, however, in the paper value of the measure 
of all values, gold, is detrimental to the interests of trade. It makes 
the man of business an involuntary gambler, for in all sales where 
future payment is to be made both parties speculate as to what will 
be the value of the currency to be paid and received. I earnestly rec- 
ommend to you, then, such legislation as will insure a gradual return 
to specie payments and put an immediate stop to fluctuations in the 
value of currency. 

The methods to secure the former of these results are as numerous 
as are the speculators on political economy. To secure the latter I 
see but one way, and that is to authorize the Treasury to redeem its 
own paper, at a fixed price, whenever presented, and to withhold from 
circulation all currency so redeemed until sold again for gold. 

On my assuming the responsible duties of Chief Magistrate of the 
United States it was with the conviction that three things were essen- 
tial to its peace, prosperity, and fullest development. First among 
these is strict integrity in fulfilling all our obligations; second, to 



464 History of the United States. 

sccore protection to the person and property of the citizen of the 
United States in each and every portion of our common country, 
wherever he may choose to move, without reference to original nation- 
ality, religion, color, or politics, demanding of him only obedience to 
the laws and proper respect for the rights of others; third, union of all 
the States, with equal rights, indestructible by any constitutional 
means. 

To secure the first of these. Congress has taken two essential steps: 
First, in declaring by joint resolution that the public debt shall be paid, 
principal and interest, in coin ; and, second, by providing the means for 
paying. Providing the means, however, could not secure the object 
desired without a proper administration of the laws for the collection 
of the revenues and an economical disbursement of them. To this 
subject the Administration has most earnestly addressed itself, with 
results, I hope, satisfactory to the country. There has been no hesi- 
tation in changing officials in order to secure an efficient execution of 
the laws, sometimes, too, when, in a mere party view, undesirable po- 
litical results were likely to follow; nor any hesitation in sustaining effi- 
cient officials against remonstrances wholly political. 

It may be well to mention here the embarrassment possible to arise 
from leaving on the statute books the so-called *'Tenure-of-office Acts," 
and to earnestly recommend their total repeal. It could not have been 
the intention of the framers of the Constitution, when providing that 
appointments made by the President should receive the consent of the 
Senate, that the latter should have the power to retain in office persons 
placed there by Federal appointment against the will of the President. 
The law is inconsistent with a faithful and efficient administration of 
the Government. What faith can an Executive put in officials forced 
upon him, and those, too, whom he has suspended for reason? How 
will such officials be likely to serve an Administration which they 
know does not trust them? 

For the second requisite to our growth and prosperity time and a 
firm but humane administration of existing laws, amended from time 
to time as they may prove ineffective or prove harsh and unnecessary, 
are probably all that are required. 

The third can not be attained by special legislation, but must be 
regarded as fixed by the Constitution itself and gradually acquiesced 
in by force of public opinion. 

From the foundation of the Government to the present the manage- 
ment of the original inhabitants of this continent — the Indians — 
has been a subject of embarrassment and expense, and has been at- 



Ulysses S. Grant. 465 

tended with continuous robberies, murders, and wars. From my own 
experience upon the frontiers and in Indian countries, I do not hold 
either legislation or the conduct of the whites who come most in con- 
tact with the Indian blameless for these hostilities. The past, however, 
can not be undone, and the question must be met as we now find it. 
I have attempted a new policy toward these wards of the nation, they 
can not be regarded in any other light than as wards, with fair re- 
sults so far as tried, and which I hope will be attended ultimately with 
gieat success. *The Society of Friends is well known as having 
succeeded in living in peace with the Indians in the early settlement 
of Pennsylvania, while their white neighbors of other sects in other 
sections were constantly embroiled. They are also known for their 
opposition to all strife, violence, and war, and are generally noted for 
their strict integrity and fair dealings. These considerations induced 
me to give the management of a few reservations of Indians to them 
and to throw the burden of the selection of agents upon the society it- 
self The result has proven most satisfactory. It will be found more 
fully set forth in the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 
For superintendents and Indian agents not on the reservations, offi- 
cers of the Army were selected. The reasons for this are numerous. 
Where Indian agents are sent, there, or near there, troops- must be sent 
also. The agent and the commander of troops are independent of 
each other, and are subject to orders from dififerent Departments of 
the Government. The army officer holds a position for life; the agent, 
one at the will of the President. The former is personally interested 
in living in harmony with the Indian and in establishing a pemianent 
peace, to the end that some portion of his life may be spent within the 
limits of civiHzed society; the latter has no such personal interest. 
Another reason is an economic one; and still another, the hold which 
the Government has upon a life officer to secure a faithful discharge 
of duties in carrying out a given policy. 

The building of railroads, and the access thereby given to all the 
agricultural and mineral regions of the country, is rapidly bringing 
civilized settlements into contact with all the tribes of Indians. No 
matter what ought to be the relations between such settlements and the 
aborigines, the fact is they do not harmonize well, and one or the other 
has to give w^ay in the end. A system which looks to the extinction 
of a race is too horrible for a nation to adopt without entailing upon 
itself the wTath of all Christendom and engendering in the citizen a 



* Known as the Quaker Peace Commission. 



466 History of the United States. 

disregard for human life and the rights of others, dangerous to society. 
1 see no substitute for such a system, except in placing all the Indians 
on large reservations, as rapidly as it can be done, and giving them 
absolute protection there. As soon as they are fitted for it they should 
be induced to take their lands in severalty and to set up Territorial 
governments for their own protection. For full details on this subject 
I call your special attention to the reports of the Secretary of the In- 
terior and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 

SPECIAL MESSAGE ON THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITU- 
TION, ENFRANCHISING THE NEGROES. 

It is unusual to not?fy the two Houses of Congress by message of 
the promulgation, by proclamation of the Secretary of State, of the rati- 
fication of a constitutional amendment. In view, however, of the 
vast importance of the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution, this 
day (March 30, 1870) declared a part of that revered instrument, 1 
deem a departure from the usual custom justifiable. A measure 
which makes at once 4,000,000 people voters who w-ere heretofore de- 
clared by the highest tribunal in the land not citizens of the United 
States, nor eligible to become so, with the assertion that " at the time 
of the Declaration of Independence the opinion was fixed and univer- 
sal in the civilized portion of the white race, regarded as an axiom in 
morals as well as in politics, that black men had no rights which the 
white man was bound to respect ", is indeed a measure of grander 
importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of 
our free Government to the present day. 

Institutions like ours, in which all power is derived directly from the 
people, must depend mainly upon their intelligence, patriotism, and 
industry. I call the attention, therefore, of the newly enfranchised race 
to the importance of their striving in every honorable manner to make 
themselves worthy of their new privilege. To the race more favored 
heretofore by our laws I would say, withhold no legal privilege of ad- 
vancement to the new citizen. The framers of our Constitution firmly 
believed that a Republican Government could not endure without intel- 
ligence and education generally diffused among the people. The 
Father of his Country, in his Farewell Address, uses this language: 

Promote, then as an object of primary importance, institutions for the gen- 
eral diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government 
gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be 
enlightened. 



fyy^. %»i >anx<_ 






c-.<^^..x>i,,^ oi.^./'.. /;..,. ../^i.. 






Vwo " .7 .. , . .,,./' c / /^ ..... c /. /^ A^.Jt.i^jujoL /<:.,,,, ,,^,/^j^^ 









y ^d} i^t . 



:i. 



-c._t;,, .../,,,/,,, ,.,, //.,. ,./.. /..^.^./.'.^v)^ 









PRESIDENT GRANT'S CENTENNIAL PROCLAMATION 



CZ-<--v <..-./..^ ..-v^ L..Jt xl..£^ 



/y(Ll-« J»<w xl 






r(^ 



... </, .. .,.. / (^ ^ , • /- /.^ 

..,., .^^/' ,.,..- / .■..,/? ^ /, .....A,,..X 

I 









PRESIDENT GRANT'S SIGNATURE TO CENTENNIAL PROCLA- 
MATION. 



Ulysses S. Grant. 469 

In his first annual message to Congress the same views are forcibly 
presented, and are again urged in his eighth message. 

I repeat that the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Consti- 
tution completes the greatest civil ctiange and constitutes the most 
important event that has occurred since the nation came into life. 
The change will be beneficial in proportion to the heed that is given to 
the urgent recommendations of Washington. If these recommenda- 
tions were important then, with a population of but a few millions;, 
how much more important now, with a population of 40,000,000, and 
increasing in a rapid ratio. I would therefore call upon Congress to 
take all the means within their constitutional powers to promote and 
encourage popular education throughout the country, and upon the 
people everywhere to see to it that all who possess and exercise politi- 
cal rights shall have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge which 
will make their share in the Government a blessing and not a danger. 
By such means only can the benefits contemplated by this amendment 
to the Constitution be secured. 



I transmit (March 31, 1870), for consideration with a view to its ra- 
tification, a treaty between the United States and the United States of 
Colombia for the construction of an interoceanic canal across the 
Isthmus of Panama or Darien, signed at Bogota on the 26th of 
January last. 

A copy of a dispatch of the first ultimo to the Secretary of State 
from General Hurlbut, the United States minister at Bogota, relative 
to the treaty, is also transmitted for the information of the Senate. 

SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 5, 187O. 

Soon after the existing war broke out in Europe the protection of 
the United States minister in Paris \vas invoked in favor of North 
Germans domiciled in French territory. Instructions were issued to 
grant the protection. This has been follov/ed by an extension of 
American protection to citizens of Saxony, Hesse and Saxe-Coburg, 
Gotha, Colombia, Portugal, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic. Ecua- 
dor, Chile, Paraguay, and Venezuela in Paris. The charge was. an 
onerous one, requiring constant and severe labor, as well as the exer- 
cise of patience, prudence, and good judgment. It has been per- 
formed to the entire satisfaction of this Government, and, as I am ofifi- 



470 History of the United States. 

cially informed, equally so to the satisfaction of the Government of 
North Germany. 

As soon as I learned that a Republic had been proclaimed at Paris 
and that the people of France had accjuiesced in the change, the min- 
ister of the United States was directed by telegraph to recognize it and 
to tender my congratulations and those of the people of the United 
States. The re-establishment in France of a system of government dis- 
connected with the dynastic traditions of Europe appeared to be a 
proper subject for the felicitations of Americans. 

During the last session of Congress a treaty for the annexation of 
the Republic of San Domingo to the United States failed to receive 
the requisite two-thirds vote of the Senate. I was thoroughly con- 
vinced then that the best interests of this country, commercially and 
materially, demanded its ratification. Time has only confirmed me 
in this view. I now firmly believe that the moment it is known that 
the United States have entirely abandoned the project of accepting 
as a part of its territory the island of San Domingo a free port will be 
negotiated for by European nations in the Bay of Samana. A large 
commercial city will spring up, to which we will be tributary without 
leceiving corresponding benefits, and then will be seen the folly of 
our rejecting so great a prize. The Government of San Domingo 
has voluntarily sought this annexation. It is a weak power, number- 
ing probably less than 120,000 souls, and yet possessing one of the rich- 
est territories under the sun, capable of supporting a population of 
10,000,000 people in luxury. The people of San Domingo are not capa- 
ble of maintaining themselves in their present condition, and must 
look for outside support. They yearn for the protection of our free 
institutions and laws, our progress and civilization. Shall we refuse 
them ? 

The acquisition of San Domingo is desirable because of its geo- 
graphical position. It commands the entrance to the Caribbean Sea 
and the Isthmus transit of commerce. It possesses the richest soil, best 
and most capacious harbors, most salubrious climate, and the most 
valuable products of the forests, mine, and soil of any of the West 
India Islands. Its possession by us will in a few years build up a 
coastwise commerce of immense magnitude, which will go far toward 
restoring to us our lost merchant marine. It will give to us those 
articles which we consume so largely and do not produce, thus equal- 
izing our exports and imports. In case of foreign war it will give us 
command of all tlie islands referred to, and thus prevent an enemy 



Ulysses S. Grant. 471 

from ever again possessing himself of rendezvous upon our very coast. 
At present our coast trade between the' States bordering on the Atlan- 
tic and those bordering on the Gulf of Mexico is cut into by the Ba- 
hamas and the Antilles. Twice we must, as it were, pass through 
foreign countries to get by sea from Georgia to the west coast of 
Florida. 

San Dommgo, with a stable government, under which her immense 
resources can be developed, will give remunerative wages to tens of 
thousands of laborers not now upon the island. This labor will take 
advantage of every available means of transportation to abandon the 
adjacent islands and seek the blessings of freedom and its sequence - — 
each inhabitant receiving the reward of his own labor. Porto Rico 
and Cuba will have to abolish slavery, as a measure of self-preserva- 
tion, to retain their laborers. 

San Domingo will become a large consumer of the products of 
Northern farms and manufactories. The cheap rate at which her citi- 
zens can be furnished with food, tools, and machinery will make it 
necessary that contiguous islands should have the same advantages 
in order to compete in the production of sugar, coffee, tobacco, tropi- 
cal fruits, etc. This will open to us a still wider market for our prod- 
ucts. The production of our own supply of these articles will cut off 
more than one hundred millions of our annual imports, besides largely 
increasing our exports. With such a picture it is easy to see how 
our large debt abroad is ultimately to be extinguished. With a bal- 
ance of trade against us, including interest on bonds held by foreign- 
ers and money spent by our citizens in traveling in foreign lands, 
equal to the entire yield of the precious metals in this country, it is 
not so easy to see how this result is to be otherwise accomplished. 

The acquisition of San Domingo is an adherence to the " Monroe 
doctrine;" it is a measure of national protection; it is asserting our 
just claim to a controlling influence over the great commercial traf^c 
soon to flow from west to east by way of the Isthmus of Darien; it 
is to build up our merchant marine; it is to furnish new markets for 
the products of our farms, shops, and manufactories; it is to make 
slavery insupportable in Cuba and Porto Rico at once, and ultimately 
so in Brazil; it is to settle the unhappy condition of Cuba and end an 
exterminating conflict; it is to provide an honest means of paying our 
honest debts without overtaxing the people; it is to furnish our citizens 
with the necessaries of everyday life at cheaper rates than ever before; 
and it is, in fine, a rapid stride toward that greatness which the intelli- 



472 History of ttie United States. 

gence, industry, and enterprise of the citizens of the United States en- 
title this country to assume among nations. 

In view of the importance of this question, I earnestly urge upon 
Congress early action expressive of its views as to the best means of 
acquiring San Domingo. My suggestion is that Ijy joint resolution 
o: the two Houses of Congress the Executive be authorized to appoint 
a commission to negotiate a treaty with the authorities of San Do- 
mingo for the acquisition of that island, and that an appropriation be 
made to defray the expenses of such a commission. 

In Utah there still remains a remnant of barbarism, repugnant to 
civilization, to decency, and to the laws of the United States. Ter- 
ritorial officers, however, have been found who are willing to perform 
their duty in a spirit of equity and with a due sense of the necessity of 
sustaining the majesty of the law. Neither polygamy nor any other 
violation of existing statutes will be permitted within the territory of 
the United States. It is not with the religion of the self-styled Saints 
that we are now dealing, but with their practices. They will be pro- 
tected in the worship of God according to the dictates of their con- 
sciences, but they will not be permitted to violate the laws under the 
cloak of religion. 

More than six years having elapsed since the last hostile gun was 
fired between the armies then arrayed against each other — one for 
the perpetuation, the other for the destruction, of the Union — it may 
well be considered whether it is not now time that the disabilities im- 
posed by the Fourteenth Amendment should be removed. That 
amendment does not exclude tlie ballot, but only imposes the disability 
to hold of^ces upon certain classes. When the purity of the ballot is 
secure, majorities are sure to elect officers reflecting the views of the 
majority. I do not see the advantage or propriety of excluding men 
from office merely because they were before the rebellion of standing 
and character sufficient to be elected to positions requiring them to 
take oaths to support the Constitution, and admitting to eligibility 
those entertaining precisely the same views, but of less standing in 
their communities. It may be said that the former violated an oath, 
while the latter did not; the latter did not have it in their power to do 
so. If they had taken this oath, it can not be doubted they would 
have broken it as did the former class. If there are any great crimi- 
nals, distinguished above all others for the part they took in opposition 
to the Government, they might, in the judgment of Congress, be ex- 
cluded from such an amnesty. 



Ulysses S. Grant. 473 

This subject is submitted for your careful consideration. 

The condition of the Southern States is, unhappily, not such as all 
true patriotic citizens would like to see. Social ostracism for opinion's 
sake, personal violence or threats toward persons entertaining politi- 
cal views opposed to those entertained by the majority of the old citi- 
zens, prevents immigration and the flow of much-needed capital into 
the States lately in rebellion. It will be a happy condition of the 
country when the old citizens of these States will take an interest in 
public affairs, promulgate ideas honestly entertained, vote for men rep- 
resenting their views, and tolerate the same freedom of expression and 
ballot in those entertaining different political convictions. 

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 4. 187I. 

In my message to Congress one year ago I urgently recommended 
a reform in the Civil Service of the country. In conformity with that 
recommendation Congress, in the ninth section of " An act making 
appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government, and for 
other purposes," approved March 3, 1871, gave the necessary au- 
thority to the Executive to inaugurate a civil service reform, and placed 
upon him the responsibility of doing so. Under the authority of said 
act I convened a board of gentlemen eminently qualified for the work 
to devise rules and regulations to effect the needed reform. Their 
labors are not yet complete, but it is believed that they will succeed 
in devising a plan that can be adopted to the great relief of the Execu- 
tive, the heads of Departments, and members of Congress, and which 
will redound to the true interest of the public service. At all events, 
the experiment shall have a fair trial. 

SECOND INAUGI^RAL ADDRESS. MARCH 4, 1 873. 

I acknowledge before this assemblage, representing, as it does, 
every section of our country, the obligation I am under to my country- 
men for the great honor they have conferred on me by returning me 
to the highest office within their gift, and the further obligation resting 
on me to render to them the best services within my power. This I 
promise, looking forward with the greatest anxiety to the day when 
I shal^be released from responsibilities that at times are almost over- 
whelming, and from which I scarcely had a respite since the eventful 
firing upon Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, to the present day. My ser- 



474 History of the United States. 

vices were then tendered and accepted under the first call for troops 
growing out of that event. 

I did not ask for place or position, and was entirely without influ- 
ence or the acquaintance of persons of influence, but was resolved to 
perform my part in a struggle threatening the very existence of the 
Nation. I performed a conscientious duty without asking promotion 
or command, and without a revengeful feeling toward any section or 
individual. 

Notwithstanding this, throughout the war, and from my candidacy 
for my present office in 1868 to the close of the last Presidential 
campaign, I have been the subject of abuse and slander scarcely ever 
equaled in political history, which to-day I feel that I can afTord to 
disregard in view of your verdict, which I gratefully accept as my 
vindication. 



FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER I, 1873. 

The steamer " Virginius " was on the 26th day of September, 1870, 
duly registered at the port of New York as a part of the commercial 
marine of the United States. On the 4th of October, 1870, having re- 
ceived the certificate of her register in the usual legal form, she sailed 
from the port of New York and has not since been within the terri- 
torial jurisdiction of the United States. On the 31st day of October 
last, while sailing under the flag of the United States on the high seas, 
she was forcibly seized by the Spanish gunboat " Tornado," and 
was carried into the port of Santiago de Cuba, where fifty-three of her 
passengers and crew were inhumanly, and, so far at least as relates to 
those who were citizens of the United States, without due process of 
law, put to death. 

It is a well-established principle, asserted by the United States from 
the beginning of their national independence, recognized by Great 
Britain and other maritime powers, and stated by the Senate in a reso- 
lution passefl unanimously on the i6th of Jwne, 1858, that — 

American vessels on the hign seas in time 01 peace, bearmg the American 
flag, remain under the jurisdiction of the country to which they belong, and, 
therefore, any visitation, molestation, or detention of such vessel by force, or 
by the exhibition of force, on the part of a foreign power is in derogation of 
the sovereignty of the United States. 



Ulysses S. Grant. 475 

In accordance with this principle, the restoration of the " Vir- 
ginius " and the surrender of the survivors of her passengers and crew, 
and a due reparation to the flag, and the punishment of the authorities 
who had been guihy of the illegal acts of violence, were demanded 
The Spanish Government has recognized the justice of the demand, 
and has arranged for the immediate delivery of the vessel, and for the 
surrender of the survivors of the passengers and crew, and for a salute 
to the flag, and for proceedings looking to the punishment of those 
who may be proved to have been guilty of illegal acts of violence 
toward citizens of the United States. 

I would recommend for your favorable consideration the passage 
of an enabling act for the admission of Colorado as a State in the 
Union. It possesses all the elements of a prosperous State, agricul- 
tural and mineral, and, I believe, has a population now to justify such 
admission. In connection with this I would also recommend the 
encouragement of a canal for purposes of irrigation from the eastern 
slope of the Rocky Mountains to the Missouri River. As a rule I 
am opposed to further donations of public lands for internal improve- 
ments owned and controlled by private corporations, but in this in- 
stance I would make an exception. Between the Missouri River and 
the Rocky Mountains there is an arid belt of public land from 300 to 
500 miles in width, perfectly valueless for the occupation of man, for 
the want of sui^cient rain to secure the growth of any product. An 
irrigating canal would make productive a belt as wide as the supply of 
water could be made to spread over across this entire country, and 
would secure a cordon of settlements connecting the present popula- 
tion of the mountain and mining regions with that of older States. 
All the land reclaimed would be clear gain. If alternate sections are 
retained by the Government, I would suggest that the retained sections 
be thrown open to entry under the Homestead Laws, or sold to actual 
settlers for a very low price. 



It is wath deep regret that the President announces (March 9, 1874) 
to the people of the United States the death of Millard Fillmore, one 
of his honored predecessors, who died at Buflfalo, N. Y., last evening. 

The long-continued and useful public service and eminent purity 
01 character of the deceased ex-President will be remembered beyond 
the days of mourning in which a nation will be thrown by the event 
which is thus announced. 



476 History ov the United States. 

It becomes the painiiil duty of the President to announce (July 31, 
1875) to the people of the United States the death of Andrew Johnson 
the last survivor of his honored predecessors, which occurred in 
Carter country. East Tennessee, at an early hour this morning. 

The solemnity of the occasion which called him to the Presidency, 
with the varied nature and length of his public services, will cause him 
to be long remembered and occasion mourning for the death of a dis- 
tinguished public servant. 



It is with profound sorrow that the President has (November 22, 
1875) to announce to the people of the United States the death of the 
Vice-President, Plenry Wilson, who died in the Capitol of the nation 
this morning. 

The eminent station of the deceased, his high character, his long 
career in the service of his State and of the Union, his devotion to the 
cause of freedom, and the ability which he brought to the discharge 
of every duty stand conspicuous and are indelibly impressed on the 
hearts and affections of the American people. 

seventh annual message, DECEMBER 7, 1875. 

I look upon as vital to the best interests of the whole people — com- 
ing within the purview of "Treasury;" specie resumption. Too 
m.uch stress can not be laid upon this question, and I hope Congress 
may be induced, at the earliest day practicable, to insure the consum- 
mation of the act of the last Congress, at its last session, to bring 
about specie resumption " on and after the ist of January, 1879," at 
furthest. It would be a great blessing if this could be consummated 
even at an earlier day. 

Nothing seems to me more certain than that a full, healthy, and per- 
manent reaction can not take place in favor of the industries and finan- 
cial welfare of the country until we return to a measure of values recog- 
ired throughout the civilized world. While we use a currency not 
equivalent to this standard the world's recognized standard, specie, 
becomes a commodity like the products of the soil, the surplus seeking 
a market wherever there is a demand for it. 

Under our present system we should want none, nor would we have 
any, were it not that customs dues must be paid in coin and because 
or the pledge to pay interest on the public debt in coin. The yield 
of precious metals would flow out for the purchase of foreign produc- 



_ 




GENERAL GRANT'S TOMB ON MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, NEW 

YORK CITY. 



Ulyssks S. (iK.wt. 479 

tions and leave the United States " hewers of wood and drawers of 
water,'" because of wiser legislation on the subject of finance by the 
nations with whom w^e have dealings. I am not prepared to say that 
I can suggest the best legislation to secure the end most heartily rec- 
ommended. It will be a source of great gratification to me to be able 
to approve any measure of Congress looking effectively toward secur- 
mg " resumption." 

Unlimited inflation would probably bring about specie payments 
more speedily than any legislation looking to redemption of the legal- 
tenders in coin; but it would be at the expense of honor. The legal 
tenders would have no value beyond settling present liabilities, or, 
properly speaking, repudiating them. They would buy notliing after 
debts were all settled. 

There are a few measures which seem to me important in this con- 
nection and which I recommend to your earnest consideration: 

A repeal of so much of the legal-tender act as makes these notes 
receivable for debts contracted after a date to be fixed in the act itself, 
say not later than the ist of January, 1877. We should then have 
quotations at real values, not fictitious ones. Gold would no longer 
be at a premium, but currency at a discount. A healthy reaction would 
set in at once, and with it a desire to make the currency equal to what 
it purports to be. The merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen of 
every calling could do business on a fair margin of profit, the money 
to be received having an unvarying value. Laborers and all classes 
who work for stipulated pay or salary would receive more for their in- 
come, because extra profits would no longer be charged by the capital- 
ists to compensate for the risk of a downward fluctuation in the value 
of the currency. 

EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 5, 1876. 

Taxes have been reduced within the last seven years nearly 
$300,000,000, and the national debt has been reduced in the same 
time over $435,000,000. By refunding the 6 per cent, bonded debt 
for bonds bearing 5 and 4^ per cent, interest, respectively, the annual 
interest has been reduced from over $130,000,000 in 1869 to but little 
over $100,000,000 in 1876. The balance of trade has been changed 
from over $130,000,000 against the United States in 1869 to more than 
$120,000,000 in our favor in 1876. 

The Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims, whose functions 
were continued by an act of the last session of Congress until the ist 



480 History of the United States. 

clay of January, 1877, has carried on its labors with diligence and gen- 
eral satisfaction. By a report from the clerk of the court, transmitted 
herewith, bearing date November 14, 1876, it appears that within the 
time now allowed by law the court will have disposed of all the claims 
presented for adjudication. This report also contains a statement of 
the general results of the labor of the court to the date thereof. It is 
a cause of satisfaction that the method adopted for the satisfaction of 
the classes of claims submitted to the court, which are of long stand- 
ing and justly entitled to early consideration, should have proved suc- 
cessful and acceptable. 

It is with satisfaction that I am enabled to state that the work of 
the joint commission for determining the boundary line between ihe 
United States and British possessions from the northwest angle of the 
Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, commenced in 1872, has 
been completed. The final agreements of the commissioners, with 
the maps, have been duly signed, and the work of the commission is 
complete. 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

LYSSES S. GRANT was born at Point Pleasant, Ohio. April 
27, 1822. His father, Jesse R. Grant, was of Scotch ancestry, 
and descended from Mathew Grant, who emigrated to Dor- 
chester, Mass., in 1630. His mother was Hannah Simpson. When 
about a year old, his parents moved to Georgetown, Ohio, where his 
early life was spent, until he reached his seventeenth year, when he 
entered the Military Academy at West Point, as a cadet. He grad- 
uated in 1843 ^I'^d was attached to the Fourth United States Infantry 
as second lieutenant He served through the Mexican War, and dis- 
tinguished himself for gallant conduct, and was appointed September 
16, 1847, fi^st lieutenant. 

He married Miss Julia Dent of St. Louis, Mo., August 22, 1848, 
and was stationed on the Pacific Coast in 1852. He was made a 
captain the next year, but resigned his commission in 1854, and re- 
turned to the east, living in St. Louis until May, i860, when he went 
to Galena, 111., and entered his father's store as a clerk. When Presi- 
dent Lincoln issued his first call for troops in April, 1861, Grant re- 
sponded by raising and drilling a company of volunteers. He also 
offered his service to the Government by letter, May 24, 1861, but 



Ulysses S. Grant. 



481 



no reply was ever made to it. The following- June he was appointed 
colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Volunteers, and served until Au- 
gust 7th, when Lincoln made him brigadier-general of volunteers. He 
was assigned September ist, to command the District of Southern 
Missouri, with headquarters at Cairo, and on February 6, 1862, cap- 
tured Fort Henry, and on the i6th of February, Fort Donelson. His 
war record thenceforward was a series of brilliant victories, carefully 
planned and ably conducted campaigns, until on March 12, 1864, he 
assumed command of all the armies of the United States with the rank 
of lieutenant-general. 

On May 4, 1864, he began his celebrated campaign which terminated 
the war and brought the Confederates to surrender in April, 1865. 
His grateful fellow countrymen vied with each other in showing their 
gratitude and honoring him. His neighbors in Galena gave him a 
pretty home in their town, the people of New York, a check for 
$105,000, the residents of Philadelphia a fine residence in that city. 
The Republicans nominated him for President May 20, 1868. He 
was elected the following November, and re-elected in 1872. He 
retired March 4, 1877, and traveled around the world, being received 
everywhere wath great distinction and honor. He died at Mount Mc- 
Gregor, N. Y., July 22, 1885. 

His remains lie in the magnificent mausoleum erected by the con- 
tributions of the nation on Riverside Drive on the banks of the Hud- 
son River, in New York city. 






t 



^^- 




%^ 












5? ■&. ^£*. ''"^^f C^^'^^'iSl.J^ 




'HARDSCRABBLE,"GEN. GRANT'S FARM IN ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI, 



482 



History of the United States. 




HOME OF PRESIDENT HAYES AT FREMONT, OHIO. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



PRESIDENT HAYES AS A CITIZEN AND STATESMAN. 



By Joseph B. Foraker, Senator from Ohio. 



T NTEREST in President Hayes is reviving, and I am glad to note it. He 
-*- was not properly appreciated by the country while in life. I hope history 
will do him justice. He was in private life a lovable man, and in public life 
very able as well as pure and patriotic in his purposes. He was of rugged 
constitution, of undoubted physical courage, and always willing to stand by his 
convictions without regard as to results. 



Rutherford B. Hayes. 483 

He was of humble origin, a self-made man. a lawyer and a soldier; three 
times Governor of Ohio, a member of Congress, and President of the United 
States. He distinguished himself in all these relations. He got his education 
by hard work and personal deprivation. He attracted attention at the bar from 
the day of his admission. He held the very responsible office of city solicitor 
for the city of Cincinnati when the war broke out. He at once volunteered, 
and rapidly rose to the rank of major-general for efficient and gallant services 
rendered at the front. He was distinguished for bravery in almost every battle 
in which he fought. 

His elections to be Governor of Ohio were over the three strongest and 
most popular Democrats in the State — Thurman, Pendleton, and Allen. He 
beat them all in succession. 

He came into the Presidential office handicapped by a disptitcd title, and 
disappointed many Republicans by the course he pursued with respect to the 
South, particularly as to the Packard government in Louisiana; but he took 
that step from a high sense of duty, feeling that it was practically the first in 
the direction of better relations between the sections, and that ultimate results 
would justify what at the time so many of his party friends criticised. 

His Cabinet was one of the ablest we have ever had, and his Administration 
will compare favorably in all respects, but particularly as to its high moral 
and patriotic plane, with any we have had since the war. 

^^'hen he retired from the Presidency he very largely dropped out of sight, 
but he did not lose interest in public affairs, nor cease to labor for the public 
good. He was active in all kinds of benevolent work, especially in connection 
with the National associations for prison reforms, charities, etc. 

He took great interest in the Ohio State University, serving as a member of 
its board of trustees. In fact there was no work of a worthy kind, and bene- 
ficial to humanity in a charitable or educational way, in which he was not 
willing to engage, no matter how humble might be the position assigned him. 
He did not do this work for the sake of employment — that he might be 
occupied — nor that he might be in some sense kept before the public, for he 
had no thoughts or troubles of that character. It was purely and solely 
unselfish, and for the good of others. 

He had a beautiful home at Fremont, Ohio, with spacious grounds, and 
there he delighted to spend his time. He was never a hard student, but he was 
always a wide and attentive reader, a charming conversationalist and an 
agreeable and entertaining companion. 

He had a considerable fortune, and a wife and children of ability, culture, and 
refinement. His was a model home, and there, after he was free from public 
cares, were spent the happiest days of his life. 



484 History of the United States. 

Upon tlie death of President Hayes, which occurred at his home at Fremont, 
Ohio, William McKinley, Jr., then Governor of Ohio, issued a proclamation, 
in which he said among other things: " In battle he was brave, and wounds 
he received in defending his country's flag were silent, but eloquent, testi- 
monials to his gallantry, patriotism, and sacrifice. * * * From the com- 
pletion of his term as President of the United States, he was an exemplification 
of the noblest qualities of Amercan citizenship in its private capacity; modest, 
unassuming, yet public-spirited, ever striving for the well being of the people, 
the relief of distress, the reformation of abuses, and the practical education of 
the masses of his countrymen. 

" We are made better by such a life. Its serious contemplation will be 
helpful to all. We add to our own honor by doing honor to the memory of 
Rutherford B. Hayes. 

" It is fitting that the people of Ohio — whom he served so long and faith- 
fully — should take especial note of the going out of this great light, and make 
manifest the afifectionate regard in which he was held by them. 

" I, therefore, as Governor of the State of Ohio, recommend that the flags 
on all public buildings and schoolhouses be put at half mast," etc. 

This proclamation may be taken as giving the true estimate of President 
Hayes' character by the Ohio President who is now at the head of the Nation. 

Rutherford B. Hayes was universally respected as a man of strong in- 
tellectual endowment, and uprightness of character and purposes. He was 
beloved as a man, a neighbor, and a friend by all whose good fortune it was 
to know him. 




Rutherford B. Hayes. 485 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1877-1S81. 



By Rutherford B. Hayes. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 5, 1877. 

THE permanent pacification of the country upon such principles 
and by such measures as will secure the complete protection 
of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all their constitu- 
tional rights is now the one subject in onr public affairs which all 
thoughtful and patriotic citizens regard as of supreme importance. 

But at the basis of all prosperity, for every other part of the country, 
lies the improvement of the intellectual and moral condition of the 
people. Universal suffrage should rest upon universal education. 
To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made for the 
support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need be, 
supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority. 

Let me assure my countrymen of the Southern States that it is my 
earnest desire to regard and promote their truest interests — the 
interests of the white and of the colored people both and equally — 
and to put forth my best efforts in behalf of a civil policy which will 
forever wipe out in our political affairs the color line and the distinc- 
tion between North and South, to the end that we may have not 
merely a united North or a united South, but a united country. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 3, 1877. 

Among the other subjects of great and general importance to the 
people of this country, I can not be mistaken. I think, in regarding as 
pre-eminent the policy and measures which are designed to secure 
the restoration of the currency to that normal and healthful condition 
in which, by the resumption of specie payments, our internal trade and 
foreign commerce may be brought into harmony with the system of 
exchanges which is based upon the precious metals as the intrinsic 
money of the world. In the public judgment that this end should be 
sought and compassed as speedily and securely as the resources of the 



486 History of the United States. 

people and the wisdom of their Government can accomphsh, there 
is a much greater degree of unanimity than is found to concur in the 
specific measures which will bring the country to this desired end or 
the rapidity of the steps by which it can be safely reached. 

Upon a most anxious and deliberate examination, which I have felt 
it my duty to give to the subject, I am but the more confirmed in 
the opinion which 1 expressed in accepting the nomination for the 
Presidency, and again upon my inauguration, that the policy of re- 
sumption should be pursued by every suitable mpans, and that no 
legislation would be wise that should disparage the importance or re- 
tard the attainment of that result. I have no disposition, and cer- 
tainly no right, to question the sincerity or the intelligence of opposing 
opinions, and would neither conceal nor undervalue the considerable 
difficulties, and even occasional distresses, which may attend the prog- 
ress of the nation toward this primary condition to its general and 
permanent prosperity. I must, however, adhere to my most earnest 
conviction that any wavering in purpose or unsteadiness in methods, 
so far from avoiding or reducing the inconvenience mseparable from 
the transition from an irredeemable to a redeemable paper currency, 
would only tend to increased and prolonged disturbance in values, and 
unless retrieved must end in serious disorder, dishonor, and disaster in 
the financial affairs of the Government and of the people. 

The public debt of the United States to the amount of $729,000,000 
bears interest at the rate of 6 per cent., and v$7o8,ooo,ooo at the rate 
of 5 per cent., and the only way in which the country can be relieved 
from the payment of these high rates of interest is by advantageously 
refunding the indebtedness. Whether the debt is ultimately paid 
in gold or in silver coin is of but little moment compared with the 
possible reduction of interest one-third by refunding it at such re- 
duced rate. If the United States had the unquestioned right to pay 
its bonds in silver coin, the little benefit from that process would be 
greatly overbalanced by the injurious effect of such payment if made 
or proposed against the honest convictions of the public creditors. 

All the bonds that have been issued since February 12, 1873, when 
gold became the only unlimited legal-tender metallic currency of the 
country, are justly payable in gold coin or in coin of equal value. 
During the time of these issues the only dollar that could be or was 
received by the Government in exchange for bonds was the gold dol- 
lar. To require the public creditors to take in repayment any dollar 
of less commercial value would be regarded by them as a repudiation 




NINETEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Rutherford B. Hayes. 489 

of the full obligation assumed. The bonds issued prior to 1873 were 
issued at a time when the gold dollar was the only coin in circulation 
or contemplated by either the Government or the holders of the bonds 
as the coin in which they were to be paid. It is far better to pay these 
bonds in that coin tiian to seem to take advantage of the unforeseen 
fall in silver bullion to pay in a new issue of silver coin thus made so 
much less valuable. The power of the United States to coin money 
and to regulate the value thereof ought never to be exercised for 
the purpose of enabling the Government to pay its obligations in a 
coin of less value than that contemplated by the parties when the 
bonds were issued. Any attempt to pay the national indebtedness in 
a coinage of less commercial value than the money of the world 
would involve a violation of the public faith and work irreparable 
mjury to the public credit. 

It was the great merit of the act of March, 1869, in strengthening 
the public credit, that it removed all doubt as to the purpose of the 
United States to pay their bonded debt in coin. That act Vv'as accepted 
as a pledge of public faith. The Government has derived great 
benefit from it in the progress thus far made in refunding the public 
debt at low rates of interest. An adherence to the wise and just 
policy of an exact observance of the public faith will enable the Gov- 
ernment rapidly to reduce the burden of interest on the national debt 
to an amount exceeding $20,000,000 per annum, and effect an aggre- 
gate saving to the United States of more than $300,000,000 before the 
bonds can be fully paid. 

T respectfully recommend to Gongress that in any legislation pro- 
viding for a silver coinage and imparting to it the quality of legal 
tender there be impressed upon the measure a firm provision exempt- 
ing the Dublic debt heretofore issued and now outstanding from 
payment, either of principal or interest, in any coinage of less com- 
mercial value than the present gold coinage of the country. 

The organization of the Civil Service of the country lias for a num- 
ber of years attracted more and more of the public attention. So 
general has become the opinion that the methods of admission to it 
and the conditions of remaining in it are unsound that both the great 
political parties have agreed in the most explicit declarations of the 
necessity of reform and in the most emphatic demands for it. I have 
fully believed these declarations and demands to be the expression 
of a sincere conviction of the intelligent masses of the people upon 
the subject, and that they should be recognized and followed by 



490 History of the United States. 

earnest and prompt action on the part of the legislative and executive 
departments of the Government, in pursuance of the purpose indicated. 

Before my accession to office I endeavored to have my own views 
distinctly understood, and upon my inauguration my accord with the 
public opinion was stated in terms believed to be plain and un- 
ambiguous. My experience in the executive duties has strongly con- 
tirmed the belief in the great advantage the country would find in ob- 
serving strictly the plan of the Constitution, which imposes upon the 
Executive the sole duty and responsibility of the selection of those 
Federal officers who by law are appointed, not elected, and which in 
like manner assigns to the Senate the complete right to advise and 
consent to or to reject the nominations so made, whilst the House 
of Representatives stands as the public censor of the performance of 
official duties, with the prerogative of investigation and prosecution in 
all cases of dereliction. The blemishes and imperfections in the civil 
service may, as I think, be traced in most cases to a practical con- 
fusion of the duties assigned to the several Departments of the Gov- 
ernment. My purpose in this respect has been to return to the system 
established by the fundamental law, and to do this with the heartiest 
cooperation and most cordial understanding with the Senate and 
House of Representatives. 

The practical difficulties in the selection of numerous officers for 
posts of widely varying responsibilities and duties are acknowledged 
to be very great. No system can be expected to secure absolute free- 
dom from mistakes, and the beginning of any attempted change of 
custom is quite likely to be more embarrassed in this respect than any 
subsequent period. It is here that the Constitution seems to me to 
prove its claim to the great wisdom accorded to it. It gives to the 
Executive the assistance of the knowledge and experience of the 
Senate, which, when acting upon nominations as to which they may 
be disinterested and impartial judges, secures as strong a guaranty 
of freedom from errors of importance as is perhaps possible in human 
affairs. 

In addition to this, I recognize the public advantage of making 
all nominations, as nearly as possible, impersonal, in the sense of 
being free from mere caprice or favor in the selection; and in those 
offices in which special training is of greatly increased value I believe 
such a rule as to the tenure of office should obtain as may induce 
men of proper qualifications to apply themselves industriously to the 
task of becoming proficients. Bearing these things in mind, I have 



Rutherford B. Hayes, 491 

endeavored to reduce the number of changes in subordinate places 
usually made upon the change of the general administration, and shall 
most heartily co-operate with Congress in the better systematizing of 
such methods and rules of admission to the public service and of pro- 
motion within it as may promise to be most successful in making 
thorough competency, efficiency, and character the decisive tests in 
these matters. 

I ask the renewed attention of Congress to what has already been 
done by the Civil Service Commission, appointed, in pursuance of an 
act of Congress, by my predecessor, to prepare and revise civil service 
rules. In regard to much of the departmental service, especially at 
Washington, it may be difficult to organize a better system than that 
which has thus been provided, and it is now being used to a consider- 
able extent under my direction. The Commission has still a legal 
existence, although for several years no appropriation has been made 
for defraying its expenses. Believing that this Commission has ren- 
dered valuable service and will be a most useful agency inimprovingthe 
administration of the civil service, I respectfully recommend that a 
suitable appropriation, to be immediately available, be made to enable 
it to continue its labors. 



KNOWN AS THE BLAND-ALLISON ACT. 

After a very careful consideration (February 28, 1878) of the House 
bill No. 1093, entitled " An act to authorize the coinage of the stand- 
ard silver dollar and to restore its legal-tender character," I feel com- 
pelled to return it to the House of Representatives, in which it 
originated, with my objections to its passage. 

Holding the opinion, which I expressed in my annual message, 
that " neither the interests of the Government nor of the people of the 
United States would be promoted by disparaging silver as one of the 
two precious metals which furnish the coinage of the world, and that 
legislation which looks to maintaining the volume of intrinsic money 
to as full a measure of both metals as their relative commercial 
values will permit be neither unjust nor inexpedient," it has been 
my earnest desire to concur with Congress in the adoption of such 
measures to increase the silver coinage of the country as would not 
impair the obHgation of contracts, either public or private, nor in- 
juriously affect the public credit. It is only upon the conviction that 



492 History of the Uxited States. 

this bill does not meet these essential requirements that I feel it my 
duty to withhold from it my approval. 

My present ofificial duty as to this bill permits only an attention to 
the specific objections to its passage which seem to me so important 
as to justify me in asking from the wisdom and duty of Congress 
that further consideration of the bill for which the Constitution has 
in such cases provided. 

The bill provides for the coinage of silver dollars of the weight of 
412/4 grains each, of standard silver, to be a legal tender at their 
nominal value for all debts and dues, public and private, except where 
otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract. It is well known that 
the market value of that number of grains of standard silver during the 
past year has been from 90 to 92 cents as compared with the standard 
gold dollar. Thus the silver dollar authorized by this bill is worth 
8 to 10 per cent, less than it purports to be worth, and is made a legal 
tender for debts contracted when the law did not recognize such 
coins as lawful money. 

The right to pay duties in silver or in certificates for silver deposits 
will, when they are issued in sufficient amount to circulate, put an 
end to the receipt of revenue in gold, and thus compel the payment 
of silver for both the principal and interest of the public debt. One 
billion one hundred and forty-three million four hundred and ninety- 
three thousand four himdred dollars of the bonded debt now out- 
standing was issued prior to February, 1873, when the silver dollar 
was unknown in circidation in this country, and was only a con- 
venient form of silver bullion for exportation; $583,440,350 of the 
funded debt has been issued since February, 1873, when gold alone 
was the coin for which the bonds were sold, and gold alone was the 
coin in which both parties to the contract understood that the bonds 
would be paid. These bonds entered into the markets of the world. 
They w'ere paid for in gold when silver had greatly depreciated, and 
when no one would have bought them if it had been understood that 
they would be paid in silver. The sum of $225,000,000 of these 
bonds has been sold during my Administration for gold coin, and the 
United States received the benefit of these sales by a reduction of the 
rate of interest to j. per cent. During the progress of these sales a 
doubt was suggested as to the coin in which pavment of these bonds 
would be made. The public announcement was thereupon author- 
ized that it was " not to be anticipated that any future legislation of 
Congress or any action of any department of the Government would 






RUTIIEKFORD B. HaYES. 493 

sanction or tolerate the redemption of the principal of these bonds or 
the payment of the interest thereon in coin of less value than the 
coin authorized by law at the time of the issue of the bonds, being the 
coin exacted by the Government in exchange for the same." In 
view of these facts it will be justly regarded as a grave breach of the 
public faith to undertake to pay these bonds, principal or interest, in 
silver coin worth in the market less than the coin received for them. 

It is said that the silver dollar made a legal tender by this bill 
will under its operation be equivalent in value to the gold dollar. 
Many supporters of the bill believe this, and would not justify an 
attempt to pay debts, either public or private, in coin of inferior value 
to the money of the world. The capital defect of the bill is that it 
contains no provision protecting from its operation pre-existing debts 
in case the coinage which it creates shall continue to be of less value 
than that which was the sole legal tender when they were contracted. 
If it is now proposed, for the purpose of taking advantage of the de- 
preciation of silver in the payment of debts, to coin and make a legal 
tender a silver dollar of less commercial value than any dollar, 
whether of gold or paper, which is now lawful money in this country, 
such measure, it will hardly be ciuestioned, will, in the judgment of 
mankind, be an act of bad faith. As to all debts heretofore con- 
tracted, the silver dollar should be made a legal tender only at its 
market value. The standard of value shovild not be changed without 
the consent of both parties to the contract. National promises should 
be kept with tmflinching fidelity. There is no power to compel a 
nation to pay its just debts. Its credit depends on its honor. The 
nation owes what it has led or allowed its creditors to expect. I can 
not approve a bill which in my judgment authorizes the violation of 
sacred obligations. The obligation of the public faith transcends all 
questions of profit or public advantage. Its unquestionable main- 
tenance is the dictate as well of the highest expediency as of the most 
necessary duty, and should ever be carefully guarded by the Executive, 
by Congress, and by the people. 

It is mv firm conviction that if the country is to be benefited by a 
silver coinage it can be done only by the issue of silver dollars of 
full value, which will defraud no man. A cun ency worth less than 
it purports to be worth will in the end defraud not only creditors, but 
all who are engaged in legitimate business, and none more surely 
than those who are dependent on their daily labor for their daily bread. 

After a careful consideration (May 12, 1879) of the bill entitled " An 



494 History of the United States. 

act to prohibit military interference at elections," I return it to the 
House of Representatives, in which it originated, with the following 
objections to its approval: 

In the communication sent to the House of Representatives on the 
29th of last month, returning to the House without my approval the 
bill entitled " An act making appropriations for the support of the 
Army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, and for other purposes," 
I endeavored to show, by quotations from the statutes of the United 
States now in force and by a brief statement of facts in regard to 
recent elections in the several States, that no additional legislation 
was necessary to prevent interference with the elections by the military 
or naval forces of the United States. The fact was presented in that 
communication that at the time of the passage of the act of June 
18, 1878, in relation to the employment of the Army as a posse 
comitatns or otherwise, it was maintained by its friends that it would 
establish a vital and fundamental principle which would secure to the 
people protection against a standing army. The fact was also re- 
ferred to that since the passage of this act Congressional, State, and 
municipal elections have been held throughout the Union, and that 
in no instance has complaint been made of the presence of the United 
States soldiers at the polls. 

Holding, as I do, the opinion that any military interference what- 
ever at the polls is contrary to the spirit of our institutions and would 
tend to destroy the freedom of elections, and sincerely desiring to 
concur with Congress in all of its measures, it is with very great regret 
that I am forced to the conclusion that the bill before me is not only 
unnecessary to prevent such interference, but is a dangerous departure 
from long-settled and important constitutional principles. 

The true rule as to the employment of military force at the elections 
is not doubtful. No intimidation or coercion should be allowed to 
control or influence citizens in the exercise of their right to vote, 
whether it appears in the shape of combinations of evil-disposed 
persons, or of armed bodies of the militia of a State, or of the 
military force of the United States. 

The elections should be free from all forcible interference, and, as 
far as practicable, from all apprehensions of such interference. No 
soldiers, either of the Union or of the State militia, should be present 
at the polls to take the place or to perform the duties of the ordinary 
civil police force. There has been and will be no violation of this rule 
under orders from me during this Administration; but there should be 



Rutherford B. Hayes. 495 

no denial of the right of the National Government to employ its 
military force on any day and at any place in case such employment is 
necessary to enforce the Constitution and laws of the United States. 
The first act expressly authorizing the use of military power to 
execute the laws was passed almost as early as the organization of the 
Government vmder the Constitution, and was approved by President 
Washington May 2, 1792. It is as follows: 

§ 2. And be it further enacted. That whenever the laws of the United States 
shall be opposed or the execution thereof obstructed in any State by combina- 
tions too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial pro- 
ceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals by this act, the same being 
notified to the President of the United States by an associate justice or the 
district judge, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to call 
forth the militia of such State to suppress such combinations and to cause the 
laws to be duly executed. And if the militia of a State where such combination 
may happen shall refuse or be insui^ficient to suppress the same, it shall be 
lawful for the President, if the Legislature of the United States be not in 
session, to call forth and employ such numbers of the militia of any other State 
or States most convenient thereto as may be necessary; and the use of militia 
so to be called forth may be continued, if necessary, until the expiration of 
thirty days after the commencement of the ensuing session. 

In 1795 this provision was substantially re-enacted in a law which 
repealed the act of 1792. In 1807 the following act became the law 
by the approval of President Jeflferson: 

That in all cases of insurrection or obstruction to the laws, either of the 
United States or of any individual State or Territory, where it is lawful for the 
President of the United States to call forth the militia for the purpose of sup- 
pressing such insurrection or of causing the 'laws to be duly executed, it shall 
be lawful for him to employ for the same purposes such pa'-t of the land or 
naval force of the United States as shall be judged necessary, having first 
observed all the prerequisites of the law in that respect. 

By this act it will be seen that the scope of the law of 1795 was 
extended so as to authorize the National Government to use not only 
the militia, but the Army and Navy of the United States, in " causing 
the laws to be duly executed." 



496 History of the United States. 

The important provision of the acts of 1792, 1795, and 1807, modi- 
fied in its terms from time to time to adapt it to the existing emer- 
gency, remained in force until, by an act approved by President 
Lincohi July 29, 1861, it was re-enacted substantially in the same 
language in which it is now found in the Revised Statutes, viz.: 

Skc. 298. Whenever, by reason of unlawful obstructions, combinations, or 
assemblages of persons, or rebellion against the authority of the Government 
of the United States, it shall become impracticable, in the judgment of the 
President, to enforce by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings the laws 
of the United States within any State or Territory, it shall be lawful for the 
President to call forth the militia of any or all the States and to employ such 
parts of the land and naval forces of the United States as he may deem 
necessary to enforce the faithful execution of the laws of the United States or 
to suppress such rebellion, in whatever State or Territory thereof the laws of 
the United States may be forcibly opposed or the execution thereof forcibly 
obstructed. 

This ancient and fundamental law has been in force from the founda- 
tion of the Government. It is now proposed to abrogate it on certain 
days and at certain places. In my judgment no fact has been pro- 
duced which tends to show that it ought to be repealed or suspended 
for a single hour at any place in any of the States or Territories of the 
Union. All the teachings of experience in the course of our history 
are in favor of sustaining its efficiency unimpaired. On every occasion 
when the supremacy of the Constitution has been resisted and the 
perpetuity of our institutions imperiled the principle of this statute, 
enacted by the fathers, has enabled the Government of the Union to 
maintain its authority and to preserve the integrity of the nation. 

At the most critical periods of our history my predecessors in the 
executive office have relied on this great principle. It was on this 
principle that President Washington suppressed the whisky rebellion 
in Pennsylvania in 1794. 

In 1806, on the same principle, President Jefiferson broke up the 
Burr conspiracy by issuing " orders for the employmeiit of such force, 
either of the regulars or of the militia, and by such proceedings of the 
civil authorities, * * * as might enable them to suppress eiTectually 
the further progress of the enterprise." And it was under the same 
authority that President Jackson crushed nullification in South Caro- 
lina and that President Lincoln issued his call for troops to save the 



FIRST PAGE OF PRESIDENT HAYES' PROCLAMATION TO 
SUPPRESS RAILROAD STRIKE IN MARYLAND. 









U l./^ ^ 



A -ij. 



.^j^jlL 



U, . .M 









■-(/ 






LAST PAGE AND SIGNATURE OE ERESIDEXT HAYES" PROC- 
LAAL\TION TO SUPPRESS AL\RVLAND RAILROAD STRIKE. 



Rutherford B. Hayes. 499 

Union in 1861. On numerous other occasions of less significance, 
under probably every Administration, and certainly under the present, 
this power has been usefully exerted to enforce the laws, without 
objection by any party in the country, and almost without attracting 
public attention. 

The great elementary constitutional principle which was the founda- 
tion of the original statute of 1792, and which has been its essence in 
the various forms it has assumed since its first adoption, is that the 
Government of the United States possesses under the Constitution, in 
full measure, the power of self-protection by its own agencies, alto- 
gether independent of State authority, and, if need be, against the 
hostility of State governments. It should remain embodied in our 
statutes unimpaired, as it has been from the very origin of the 
Government. It should be regarded as hardly less valuable or less 
sacred than a provision of the Constitution itself. 

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER I, 1879. 

I congratulate Congress on the successful execution of the resump- 
tion act. At the time fixed, and in the manner contemplated by law, 
United States notes began to be redeemed in coin. Since the ist of 
January last they have been promptly redeemed on presentation, and 
in all business transactions, public and private, in all parts of the 
cotmtry, they are received and paid out as the equivalent of coin. The 
demand upon the Treasury for gold and silver in exchange for United 
States notes has been comparatively small, and the voluntary deposit 
of coin and bullion in exchange for notes has been very large. The 
excess of the precious metals deposited or exchanged for United States 
notes over the amount of United States notes redeemed is about 
$40,000,000. 

The resumption of specie payments has been followed by a very 
great revival of business. With a currency equivalent in value to the 
money of the commercial world, we are enabled to enter upon an 
equal competition with other nations in trade and production. The 
increasing foreign demand for our manufactures and agricultural 
products has caused a large balance of trade in our favor, which has 
been paid in gold, from the ist of July last to November 15th, to the 
amount of about $59,000,000. Since the resumption of specie pay- 
ments there has also been a marked and gratifying improvement of 
the public credit. The bonds of the Government bearing only 4 per 



500 History of the United States. 

cent, interest have been sold at or above par, sufficient in amount to 
pay off all of the national debt which was redeemable under present 
laws. The amount of interest saved annually by the process of re- 
funding the debt since March i, 1877, is $14,297,177. The bonds sold 
were largely in small sums, and the number of our citizens now 
holding the public securities is much greater than ever before. The 
amount of the national debt which matures within less than two years 
is $792,121,700, of which $500,000,000 bear interest at the rate of 5 
per cent., and the balance is in bonds bearing 6 per cent, interest. It 
is believed that this part of the public debt can be refunded by the 
issue of 4 per cent, bonds, and, by the reduction of interest which 
will thus be effected, about $11,000,000 can be annually saved to the 
Treasury. To secure this important reduction of interest to be paid 
by the United States further legislation is required, which it is hoped 
will be provided by Congress during its present session. 

The coinage of gold by the mints of the United States during the 
last fiscal year was $40,986,912. The coinage of silver dollars since the 
passage of the act for that purpose up to November i, 1879, was 
$45,000,850, of which $12,700,344 have been issued from the freasury 
and are now in circulation, and $32,300,506 are still in the possession 
of the Government. 

The third article of the treaty with Russia of March 30, 1867, by 
which Alaska was ceded to the United States, provides that the in- 
habitants of the ceded territory, with the exception of the uncivilized 
native tribes, shall be admitted to the enjoyment of all the rights of 
citizens of the United States and shall be maintained and protected in 
the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion. The un- 
civilized tribes are subject to such laws and regulations as the United 
States may from time to time adopt in regard to the aboriginal tribes 
of that country. 

Both the obligations of this treaty and the necessities of the people 
require that some organized form of government over the Territory of 
Alaska be adopted. 



fourth annual message, DECEMBER 6, 1880. 

The power of Congress to enact suitable laws to protect the Terri- 
tories is ample. It is not a case for halfway measures. The political 
power of the Mormon sect is increasing. It controls now one of our 



Rutherford B. Hayes. 501 

wealthiest and most populous Territories. It is extending steadily 
into other Territories. Wherever it goes it establishes polygamy and 
sectarian political power. The sanctity of marriage and the family 
relation are the corner-stone of our American society and civilization. 
Religious liberty and the separation of church and state are among the 
elementary ideas of free institutions. To re-establish the interests and 
principles which polygamy and Mormonism have imperiled, and to 
fully reopen to intelligent and virtuous immigrants of all creeds that 
part of our domain which has been in a great degree closed to general 
immigration by intolerant and immoral institutions, it is recommended 
that the government of the Territory of Utah be reorganized. 

I recommend that Congress provide for the government of Utah 
by a governor and judges, or commissioners, appointed by the Presi- 
dent and confirmed by the Senate — a government analogous to the 
provisional government established for the territory northwest of the 
Ohio by the ordinance of 1787. If, however, it is deemed best to 
continue the existing form of local government, I recommend that tlie 
right to vote, hold office, and sit on juries in the Territory t)f Utah be 
confined to those who neither practice nor uphold polygamy. If 
thorough measures are adopted, it is believed that within a few years 
the evils which now afflict Utah will be eradicated, and that this 
Territory will in good time become one of the most prosperous and 
attractive of the new States of the Union. 

The collections of books, specimens, and records constituting the 
Army Medical Museum and Library are of national importance. The 
library now contains about 51,500 volumes and 57,000 pamphlets re- 
lating to medicine, surgery, and allied topics. The contents of the 
Army Medical Museum consist of 22,000 specimens, and are unique 
in the completeness with which both military surgery and the diseases 
of armies are illustrated. Their destruction would be an irreparable 
loss, not only to the United States, but to the world. There are filed in 
the Record and Pension Division over 16,000 bound volumes of 
hospital records, together with a great quantity of papers, embracing 
the original records of the hospitals of our armies during the civil 
war. Aside from their historical value, these records are daily searched 
for evidence needed in the settlement of large numbers of pension and 
other claims, for the protection of the Government against attempted 
frauds, as well as idr the benefit of honest claimants. These valuable 
collections are now in a building which is peculiarly exposed to the 
danger of destruction by fire. It is, therefore, earnestly recommended 



502 History of the United States. 

that an appropriation be made for a new fireproof building, adequate 
for the present needs and reasonable future expansion of these valuable 
collections. Such a building should be absolutely fireproof; no ex- 
penditure for mere architectural display is required. It is believed that 
a suitable structure can be erected at a cost not to exceed $250,000. 
I concur with the Secretary of the Interior in expressing the earnest 
hope that Congress will at this session take favorable action on the 
bill providing for the allotment of lands on the different reservations 
in severalty to the Indians, with patents conferring fee-simple title 
inalienable for a certain period, and the eventual disposition of the 
residue of the reservations for general settlement, 'with the consent 
and for the benefit of the Indians, placing the latter under the equal 
protection of the laws of the country. This measure, together with a 
vigorous prosecution of our educational efforts, will work the most 
important and effective advance toward the solution of the Indian 
problem, in preparing for the gradual merging of our Indian popula- 
tion in the great body of American citizenship. 



LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES w^as born October 4, 1822, in 
Delaware, Ohio. In July, 1822, his father died. He entered 
Kenyon College, Gambler, Ohio, in 1838, and graduated in 
1842. He then began to study law and entered the Harvard Law 
School, August, 1843, where he remained until January, 1845. He 
was admitted to the bar of Ohio the next May and began to practice 
at Fremont, but moved to Cincinnati in 1849. He married Miss Lucy 
Ware Webb of Chillicothe, Ohio, December 30, 1852. He became a 
Republican as soon as that party had an existence, and advocated the 
election of Lincoln in i860. He became major of the Twenty-third 
Ohio Volunteers, June 7, 1861, and the following September was ap- 
pointed by General Rosecrans judge-advocate of the Department of 
the Ohio. He served through the war and was universally considered 
as a leader of men, to be both intrepid and skilful, a brave officer and 
a humane commander. For the distinguished part he took in the 
battles of Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, he was breveted major-gen- 
eral. While in service, in August, 1864, he was elected to Congress, 
and on the termination of the war took his seat December 4, 1865. 



Rutherford B. Hayes. 503 

He became governor of Ohio, 1867, and was re-elected 1869, and 
in 1875. He ran for President against Samuel J. Tilden, in 1876, The 
election resulted in a bitter dispute, each party claiming to have carried 
Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. By a special act advocated 
by both parties, the case was referred to a commission, which declared 
in favor of Mr. Hayes, and he was inaugurated March 5, 1877. On 
the expiration of his term he retired to his home at Fremont, Ohio. 
He became active in all educational and benevolent enterprises. He 
died at Fremont, Ohio, January 17, 1893, and was buried there. 



504 



History of the United States. 






- Tm 




HOME OF JAMES A. GARFIELD AT HIRAM OHIO. 



CHAPTER XX, 



GARFIELD, GREAT IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 



By CuARLFS Dick, Congressman from Ohio. 



T N one of his speeches delivered in the National House of Representatives 
*■ in 1866, Garfield said: 

" To all our means of culture is added that powerful incentive to personal 
ambition which springs from the genius of our Government. The pathway to 
honorable distinction lies open to all. No post of honor is so high but the 
poorest may hope to reach it. It is the pride of every American that many 
distinguished names at whose mention our hearts beat with a quicker bound 
were worn by the sons of poverty, who conouered obscurity and became fixed 
stars in our firmament " 



James A. Garfield. 505 

These words, uttered at a time when Garfield's splendid career was not yet 
in its opening stages, impart a forcible intimation of one of the marked 
characteristics of his earnest and determined nature, namely, his clear con- 
ception of the opportunities afforded to young men of the present time by our 
Republican form of government and the guaranty it gives of equal rights to 
all. By these words he evidenced the fact that he had grasped the possibilities 
of individual attainment, and was imbued with the spirit of our institutions. 
He knew the possibilities of his own life, and possessed a serene confidence that 
his country would offer opportunities for their realization. 

He never underestimated, and was always quick to see the value of an 
opportunity. Whatever he set out to do, he did it with his might. He did 
not believe in luck. His estimate of a man was based upon his capacity for 
hard work. Every effort of life, whether public or private, was to him an 
opportunity for the emulation of a lofty ideal. 

On entering Congress he was immediately recognized as a political force. 
His first utterance secured the attention of every member. Not possessing 
the tricks of oratory, he had what is better, the profoundness of logic. Sweep- 
ing aside the misty film which shrouded a subject under discussion, he made 
plain and bare the intricate matter it contained, and in terse, eloquent sentences 
he forced his conclusions. When he had finished, the discussion was ended. 

He was a recognized leader. He was master of all subjects. While he 
adorned every discussion with his eloquence, he enforced his views vith in- 
controvertible argument. He saw and improved opportunities as they came, 
and day after day he grew in intellectual vigor and political strength until his 
reputation became national and his ability commanded universal confidence 
and respect. 

In reaching this eminence he never crawled an inch. He moved upward 
as the eagle goes to the mountain top. Dignified, but not ostentatious, frank 
but not blunt, reserved but not austere, patient and laborious, he conquered 
all conditions, surmounted all obstacles and survived all vicissitudes. When 
the hand of the assassin laid him low, the characteristics that made him great 
in life gave the touch of beauty and sublimity to his noble spirit through the 
closing hours that resulted in death. 

Throughout his life he had ever aimed to merit his own self-respect and the 
approval of his Maker. Accepting his election as United States Senator, in a 
speech to the Ohio legislature he said: " I have represented for many years a 
district in Congress whose approbation I greatly desired; but, though it may 
seem, perhaps, a little egotistical to say it. I yet desired still more the approba- 
tion of one person and his name is Garfield." 



5o6 



History of the United States. 



The abrupt and untimely ending of his career was a sad blow to the country, 
and a most bitter affliction to his many friends. It removed from our midst 
in the very prime of usefulness and ability one of the most complete and 
representative types of human character that our immediate civilization has 
produced. As we scan the eventful life of this Colossus of men, and consider 
the unrealized possibilities of his magnificent career, had fate decreed for him 
the usual span of earthly existence, we can not but feel that an irreparable loss 
was sustained in his death. 

By reason of the exalted station he had attained and the extraordinary force 
and energy of his splendid manhood, great expectations were entertained by 
all, and especially by those who knew him best, of the good that would come 
to the country at large as well as to its individual citizens as the result of his 
further public services. It is not too much to say that President Garfield's 
Administration, had his term of office extended the full period, by reason of the 
policies he represented, and the plans contemplated, for the development of our 
resources and the advancement of our position as a commercial nation, would 
have been one of the most notable and progressive in American history. 





TWENTIETH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



J 6 ;v^^, /d.t^^^_ '^-^-ctc /o..^^) x^ 



-6A_-<^4_^ 








^ h!(yU^'^ ^:."'f rt/A^/^'-^-^ 



• 



A NOTE TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE BY PRESIDENT 

GARFIELD. 



James A. Garfield. 509 



ADMINISTRATION OF ,1881. 



By James A. Garfield. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1881. 

E stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a hundred 
years of national life — a century crowded with perils, but 
crowned with the triumphs of liberty and law. Before con- 
tinuing the onward march let us pause on this height for a moment 
to strengthen our faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway 
along which our people have traveled. 

It is now three days more than a hundred years since the adoption 
of the first written constitution of the United States — the Articles of 
Confederation and Perpetual Union. The new Republic was then 
beset with danger on every hand. It had not conquered a place in the 
family of nations. The decisive battle of the War for Independence, 
whose centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully celebrated at 
Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colonists were struggling 
not only against the armies of a great nation, but against the settled 
opinions of mankind; for the world did not then believe that the 
supreme authority of government could be safely intrusted to the 
guardianship of the people themselves. 

We can not overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelligent 
courage, and the sum of common sense with which our fathers made 
the great experiment of self-government. When they found, after a 
short trial, that the confederacy of States was too weak to meet the 
necessities of a vigorous and expanding Republic, they boldly set it 
aside, and in its stead established a National Union, founded directly 
upon the will of the people, endowed with full power of self-preserva- 
tion and ample authority for the accomplishment of its great object. 

Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been en- 
larged, the foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, 
and the growth of our people in all the better elements of national life 
has indicated the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their 



5IO History of the United States. 

descendants. Under this Constitution our people long ago made 
themselves safe against danger from without and secured for their 
mariners and flag equality of rights on all the seas. Under this Con- 
stitution twenty-five States have been added to the Union, with con- 
stitutions and laws, framed and enforced by their own citizens, to 
secure the manifold blessings of local self-government. 

The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an area fifty times 
greater than that of the original thirteen States and a population 
twenty times greater than that of 1780. 

The supreme trial of the Constitution came at last under the tre- 
mendous pressure of civil war. We ourselves are witnesses that the 
Union emerged from the blood and fire of that conflict purified and 
made stronger for all the beneficent purposes of good government. 

And now, at the close of this first century of growth, with the in- 
spirations of its history in their hearts, our people have lately reviewed 
the condition of the nation, passed judgment upon the conduct and 
opinions of political parties, and have registered their will concerning 
the future administration of the; Government. To interpret and to 
execute that will in accordance with the Constitution is the paramount 
duty of the Executive. 

Even from this brief review it is manifest that the nation is resolutely 
facing to the front, resolved to employ its best energies in developing 
the great possibilities of the future. Sacredly preserving whatever has 
been gained to liberty and good government during the century, our 
people are determined to leave behind them all those bitter contro- 
versies concerning things which have been irrevocably settled, and 
the further discussion of which can only stir up strife and delay the 
onward march. 

The supremacy of the nation and its laws should be no longer a 
subject of debate. That discussion, which for half a century threatened 
the existence of the Union, was closed at last in the high court of war 
by a decree from which there is no appeal — that the Constitution and 
the laws made in pursuance thereof are and shall continue to be the 
supreme law of the land, binding alike upon the States and the people. 
This decree does not disturb the autonomy of the States nor interfere 
W'ith any of their necessary rights of local self-government, but it does 
fix and establish the permanent supremacy of the Union. 

The will of the nation, speaking with the voice of battle and through 
the amended Constitution, has fulfilled the great promise of 1776 by 
proclaiming " liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants 
thereof." 



James A. Garfield. 511 

The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of 
citizenship is the most important political change we have known 
since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787, No thoughtful man 
can fail to appreciate its beneficent efifect upon our institutions and 
people. It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolu- 
tion. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our 
people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation 
which wronged and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own 
guardianship the manhood of more than 5,000,000 people, and has 
opened to each one of them a career of freedom and usefulness. It 
has given new inspiration to the power of self-help in both races by 
making labor more honorable to the one and more necessary to the 
other. The influence of this force will grow greater and bear richer 
fruit with the coming years. 

No doubt this great change has caused serious disturbance to our 
Southern communities. This is to be deplored, though it was, per- 
haps, unavoidable. But those who resisted the change should re- 
member that under our institutions there was no middle ground for 
the negro race between slavery and equal citizenship. There can be 
no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom 
can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its 
administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any 
virtuous citizen. 

The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress. 
With unquestioning devotion to the Union, wath a patience and gentle- 
ness not born of fear, they have " followed the light as God gave them 
to see the light." They are rapidly laying the material foundation of 
self-support, widening their circle of intelligence, and beginning to 
enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of the industrious 
poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of all good men. 
So far as my authority can lawfully extend, they shall enjoy the full 
and equal protection of the Constitution and the laws. 

The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, and a frank 
statement of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged that in many 
communities negro citizens are practically denied the freedom of the 
ballot. In so far as the truth of this allegation is admitted, it is an- 
swered that in many places honest local government is impossible if 
the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These are grave 
allegations. So far as the latter is true, it is the only palliation that 
can be offered for opposing the freedoni of the ballot. Bad local 
government is certainly a great evil, which ought to be prevented; but 



512 History of the United States. 

to violate the freedom and sanctities of the suffrage is more than an 
evil. It is a crime which, if persisted in, will destroy the Government 
itself. Suicide is not a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason 
to compass the death of the king, it shall be counted no less a crime 
here to strangle our sovereign power and stifle its voice. 

It has been said that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose 
of nations. It should be said with the utmost emphasis that this 
question of the suffrage will never give repose or safety to the States 
or to the nation until each, within its own jurisdiction, makes and 
keeps the ballot free and pure by the strong sanctions of the law. 

But the danger which arises from ignorance in the voter can not be 
denied. It covers a field far wider than that of negro suffrage and the 
present condition of the race. It is a danger that lurks and hides in 
the sources and fountains of power in every State. We have no 
standard by which to measure the disaster that may be brought upon 
us by ignorance and vice in the citizens when joined to corruption 
and fraud in the suffrage. 

The voters of the Union, who make and unmake constitutions, and 
upon whose will hang the destinies of our governments, can transmit 
their supreme authority to no successors save the coming generation 
of voters, who are the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that genera- 
tion comes to its inheritance blinded by ignorance and corrupted by 
vice, the fall of the Republic will be certain and remediless. 

The census has already sounded the alarm in the appalling figures 
which mark how dangerously high the tide of illiteracy has risen 
among our voters and their children. 

To the South this question is of supreme importance. But the 
responsibility for the existence of slavery did not rest upon the South 
alone. The nation itself is responsible for the extension of the suffrage, 
and is under special obligations to aid in removing the illiteracy which 
it has added to the voting population. For the North and South alike 
there is but one remedy. All the constitutional powder of the nation 
and of the States and all the volunteer forces of the people should be 
surrendered to meet this danger by the savory influence of universal 
education. 

It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those now living to 
educate their successors and fit them, by intelligence and virtue, for 
the inheritance which awaits them. 

In this beneficent work sections and races should be forgotten and 
partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a new meaning 



James A. Garfield. 513 

in the divine oracle which declares that " a little child shall lead them," 
for our own little children will soon control the destinies of the 
Republic. 

My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment concerning 
the controversies of past generations, and fifty years hence our children 
will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies. 
They will surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the 
Union was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both 
races were made equal before the law. We may hasten or we may 
retard, but we can not prevent, the final reconciliation. Is it not pos- 
sible for us now to make a truce with time by anticipating and 
accepting its inevitable verdict? 

Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material 
well-being unite us and offer ample employment of our best powers. 
Let all our people, leaving behind them the battlefields of dead issues, 
move forward and in their strength of liberty and the restored Union 
win the grander victories of peace. 

The prosperity which now prevails is without parallel in our history. 
Fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done 
all. The preservation of the public credit and the resumption of specie 
payments, so successfully attained by the Administration of my prede- 
cessors, have enabled our people to secure the blessings which the 
seasons brought. 

By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it has been 
found that gold and silver afiford the only safe foundation for a mone- 
tary system. Confusion has recently been created by variations in the 
relative value of the two metals, but I confidently believe that arrange- 
ments can be made between the leading commercial nations which 
will secure the general use of both metals. Congress should provide 
that the compulsory coinage of silver now required by law may not 
disturb our monetary system by driving either metal out of circulation. 
If possible, such an adjustment should be made that the purchasing 
power of every coined dollar will be exactly equal to its debt-paying 
power in all the markets of the world. 

The chief duty of the National Government in connection with the 
currency of the country is to coin money and declare its value. Grave 
doubts have been entertained whether Congress is authorized by the 
Constitution to make any form of paper money legal tender. The 
present issue of United States notes has been sustained by the neces- 
sities of war; but such paper should depend for its value and currency 



514 History of the United States. 

upon its convenience in use and its prompt redemption in coin at the 
will of the holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation. These 
notes are not money, but promises to pay money. If the holders 
demand it, the promise should be kept. 

The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest should 
be accomplished without compelling the withdrawal of the national 
bank notes, and thus disturbing the business of the country. 

I venture to refer to the position I have occupied on financial ques- 
tions during a long service in Congress, and to say that time and 
experience have strengthened the opinions I have so often expressed 
on these subjects. 

The finances of the Government shall suffer no detriment which it 
may be possible for my Administration to prevent. 

The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the Govern- 
ment than they have yet received. The farms of the United States 
afford homes and employment for more than one-half our people, and 
furnish much the largest part of all our exports. As the Government 
lights our coasts for the protection of mariners and the benefit of 
commerce, so it should give to the tillers of the soil the best lights of 
practical science and experience. 

Our manufacturers are rapidly making us industrially independent, 
and are opening to capital and labor new and profitable fields of 
employment. Their steady and healthy growth should still be 
matured. Our facilities for transportation should be promoted by the 
continued improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways 
and by the increase of our tonnage on the ocean. 

The development of the world's commerce has led to an urgent de- 
mand for shortening the great sea voyage around Cape Horn by con- 
structing ship canals or railways across the isthmus which unites the 
continents. Various plans to this end have been suggested and will 
need consideration, but none of them has been sufficiently matured to 
warrant the United States in extending pecuniary aid. The subject, 
however, is one which vAll immediately engage the attention of the 
Government with a view to a thorough protection to American in- 
terests. We will urge no narrow policy nor seek peculiar or exclusive 
privileges in any commercial route; but, in the language of my prede- 
cessor, I believe it to be the right " and duty of the United States to 
assert and maintain such supervision and authority over any inter- 
oceanic canal across the isthmus that connects North and South 
America as will protect our national interest." 



James A. Garfield, 515 

The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress 
is prohibited from making any law respecting an establishment of 
religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Territories 
of the United States are subject to the direct legislative authority of 
Congress, and hence the General Government is responsible for any 
violation of the Constitution in any of them. It is, therefore, a re- 
proach to the Government that in the most populous of the Territories 
the constitutional guaranty is not enjoyed by the people and the 
authority of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon Church not only 
offends the moral sense of manhood by sanctioning polygamy, but 
prevents the administration of justice through ordinary instrumen- 
talities of law. 

In my judgment it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the 
Uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every 
citizen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal practices, 
especially of that class which destroy the family relations and endanger 
social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely per- 
mitted to usurp in the smallest degree the functions and powers of the 
National Government. 

The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until it 
is regulated by law. For the good of the service itself, for the pro- 
tection of those who are intrusted with the appointing power against 
the waste of time and obstruction to the public business caused by the 
inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of incumbents 
against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper time ask Congress to 
fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several Executive Depart- 
ments and prescribe the grounds upon which removals shall be made 
during the terms for which incumbents have been appointed. 

Finally, acting always within the authority and limitations of the 
Constitution, invading neither the rights of the States nor the reserved 
rights of the people, it will be the purpose of my Administration to 
maintain the authority of the nation in all places within its juris- 
diction; to enforce obedience to all the laws of the Union in the in- 
terests of the people ; to demand rigid economy in all the expenditures 
of the Government, and to require the honest and faithful service of all 
executive officers, remembering that the offices were created, not for 
the benefit of incumbents or their supporters, but for the service of the 
Government. 

And now I am about to assume the great trust committed to my 
hands. I appeal to you for that earnest and thoughtful support which 



5i6 History of the United States. 

makes this Government in fact, as it is in law, a government of the 
people. 

I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress and 
of those who may share with me the responsibilities and duties of 
administration, and, above all, upon our efforts to promote the wel- 
fare of this great people and their Government I reverently invoke the 
support and blessings of Almighty God. 



James A. Garfield, President (September 20, 1881) of the United 
States, died at Elberon, N. J., last night at ten minutes before ii 
o'clock. For nearly eighty days he suffered great pain, and during 
the entire period exhibited extraordinary patience, fortitude, and 
Christian resignation. The sorrow throughout the country is deep 
and universal. Fifty millions of people stand as mourners by his bier. 
To-day, at his residence in the city of New York, Chester A. Arthur, 
Vice-President, took the oath of office as President, to which he suc- 
ceeds by virtue of the Constitution. President Arthur has entered 
upon the discharge of his duties. 

JAMES G. BLAINE, 

Secretary of State. 



LIFE OF JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 

JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD was born at Orange, Ohio. No- 
vember 19, 183 1. Flis father, Abram Garfield, was a lineal 
descendant of Edward Garfield, one of the founders of Water- 
town, Mass. His mother, Eliza Ballon, was a New Hampshire woman. 
His mother was early left a widow in poor circumstances, and on her 
devolved the rearing of four children, of whom James was the 
youngest. When three years old he learned to read in a log school- 
house. When ten he worked on a farm in the summer and went to 
district school in the winter. In this way he obtained the rudiments 
of an education and by indomitable perseverance and hard manual 
labor he fitted himself for Williams College, which he entered in 
1854, and graduated from in 1856. On his return to Ohio he became 
president of Hiram College at Hiram, Ohio, and at the same time 
studied law. He was married to Miss Lucretia Rudolph, November 



James A. Garfield. 517 

II, 1858, and the next year was made State senator. At the outbreak 
of the Rebellion, he entered the Army as lieutenant-colonel of the 
Forty-second Regiment Ohio Volunteers. He was made major-gen- 
eral by President Lincoln, September 19, 1863. He won the highest 
praise for his ability and bravery as a commander and left the Army 
at Lincoln's request, December 5, 1863, to take his seat in Congress, 
to which he had been elected while in the field. He was elected to the 
United States Senate, January 13, 1880, and nominated for President, 
June 8, 1880, and elected the 2d of the following November. He 
was inaugurated March 4, 1881, and shot by an as?assin, July 2, 1881, 
at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington. He 
died from the effect of the wound at Elberon, N. J., September 19th. 
He was buried at Cleveland, Ohio, 



5i8 



History of the United States. 













'■;;;'-i''j^^^^_M^^,^^^^ ^ 

HOME OF CHESTER A. ARTHUR, LEXINGTON AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR'S ADMINISTRATION. 



By C^AU^XEY M. Depew, Senator from New York. 



P RESIDENT ARTHUR will be distinguished both for what he did and 

what he refrained from doing. The strain and intensity of public feeling, 

the vehemence of the angry and vindictive passions of the time, demanded the 



Chester A. Arthur. 519 

rarest of negative as well as positive qualities. His calm and even course of 
government allayed excitement and appealed to the better judgment of the 
people. But though not aggressive or brilliant, his Administration was sensible 
and strong and admirably adjusted to the conditions which created and at- 
tended it. He spoke vigorously for the reform and improvement of the 
Civil Service, and when Congress, acting upon his suggestions, enacted the 
law, he constructed the machinery for its execution, which has since accom- 
plished most satisfactory, though as yet incomplete results. On questions of 
currency and finance he met the needs of public and private credit, and the 
best commercial sentiment of the country. He knew the necessity for efficient 
coast defenses, and a navy equal to the requirements of the age. He keenly 
felt the weakness of our commercial marine, and the total destruction of the 
proud position we had formerly held among the maritime Nations of the world, 
and did what he could to move Congress to wise and patriotic legislation. 

When the measures of his period are crowded into oblivion by the rapid and 
ceaseless tread of the events of each hour, in our phenomenal development and 
its needs, two acts of dramatic picturesqueness and historical significance will 
furnish themes for the orator and illustrations for the academic stage of the 
future. 

The centennial of the final surrender at Yorktown, which marked the end 
of the Revolutionary war, and the close of English rule, was celebrated with 
fitting splendor and appropriateness. The presence of the descendants of 
Lafayette and Steuben as the guests of the Nation, typified the undying 
gratitude of the Republic for the services rendered by the great French 
patriot and his countrymen, and by the famous German soldier. But the 
President, with characteristic grace and tact, determined that the ceremonies 
should also officially record that all feelings of hostility against the mother 
country were dead. He directed that the celebration should be closed by a 
salute fired in honor of the British flag, as he felicitously said, " in recognition 
of the friendly relations so long and so happily subsisting between Great 
Britain and the United States, in the trust and confidence of peace and good- 
will between the two countries for all the centuries to come," and then he 
added the sentence, " and especially as a mark of the profound respect enter- 
tained by the American people for the illustrious sovereign and gracious lady 
who sits upon the British throne." 

General Grant was dying of a lingering and most painful disease. Manifold 
and extraordinary misfortunes had befallen him, and his last days were 
clouded with great mental distress and doubt. The old soldier was most 
anxious to know that his countrymen freed him and would hold his memory 
sacred from all blame in connection with the men and troubles with which he 



520 



History of the United States. 



had become so strangely, innocently and most inextricably involved. Whether 
his life should suddenly go out in the darkness, or be spared for an indefinite 
period was largely dependent upon some act which would convey to him the 
confidence and admiration of the people. Again were illustrated both General 
Arthur's strong friendship and his always quick and correct appreciation of 
the expression of popular sentiment. By timely suggestions to Congress, 
speedily acted upon, he happily closed the Administration by affixing, as its 
last official act, his signature to the nomination, which was confirmed with 
tumultuous cheers, creating Ulysses S. Grant General of the Army. The news 
flashed to the hero, with afifectionate message; rescued him from the grave, to 
enjoy for months the blissful assurance that comrades and countrymen had 
taken his character and career into their tender and watchful keeping. 

When the bullet of Guiteau struck down President Garfield, there came a 
perfect whirlwind of resentment and revenge, and General Arthur, by the 
very necessity of his position, became the object of most causeless and cruel 
suspicion and assault. But in that hour the real greatness of his character 
became resplendent. The politician gave place to the statesman, and the 
partisan to the President. 

As a spent ball, having missed its mark, is buried in the heart of a friend, so 
the dying passions of the Civil War by one mad and isolated crime, murdered 
Abraham Lincoln, the one man in the country who had the power and dis- 
position to do at once, for those whom the assassin proposed to help and 
avenge, all that was afterward accomplished through many years of probation, 
humiliation, and sufifering. But in the death of Garfield, the spoils system, 
which dominated parties, made and unmade statesmen, shaped the policy of 
the Government and threatened the integrity and perpetuity of our institutions, 
received a fatal blow. 

It aroused the country to the perils both to the proper conduct of the busi- 
ness of the Government and to the Government itself. The months during 
which President Garfield lay dying by the sea at Elberon, were phenomenal in 
the history of the world. The sufiferer became a member of every household 
in the land, and in all countries, tongues and creeds, sympathetic prayer.s 
ascended to God for the recovery of the great ruler beyond the ocean who 
had sprung from the common people and illustrated the possibilities for the 
individual where all men are equal before the law. 

While he who was to succeed him if he died, though in no place and in no 
sense charged with sympathy with the assassination, yet was made to feel a 
National resentment and distrust which threatened his usefulness and even his 
life. Whether he spoke or was silent he was alike misrepresented and mis- 
understood. None but those most intimate with him can ever know the 



Chester A. Arthur. 521 

agony he suffered during those frightful days, and how earnestly he prayed 
that in the returning health of his chief, he might be spared the fearful trial 
of his death. 

When the end came for General Garfield, Arthur entered the White House 
as he had taken the oath of ofSce — alone. A weaker man would have suc- 
cumbed, a narrower one have seized upon the patronage and endeavored to 
build up his power by strengthening his faction. But the lineage and training 
of Arthur stood in this solemn and critical hour for patriotism and manliness. 
Friends, covv'orkers within the old lines, and associates under the old con- 
ditions looking for opportunities, for recognition or for revenge, retired 
chastened and enlightened from the presence of the President of the United 
States. 

General Arthur said to me early in his Administration: " My sole ambition 
is to enjoy the confidence of my countrymen." Toward this noble ideal he 
strove with undeviating purpose. His country has borne witness to his 
worth as a man, and his eminence as a public servant. 



(^^Uiu^.^^-^^^^^xM^^'^^ 



522 History of the United States. 



ADMINISTRATION OF 1881-1885. 



By Chester A. Arthur. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, SEPTEMBER 22, 188I. 

FOR the fourth time in the history of the Repubhc its Chief 
Magistrate has been removed by death. All hearts are filled 
with grief and horror at the hideous crime which has darkened 
our land, and the memory of the murdered President, his protracted 
sufiferings, his unyielding fortitude, the example and achievements of 
his life, and the pathos of his death will forever illumine the pages of 
our history. 

For the fourth time the officer elected by the people and ordained 
by the Constitution to fill a vacancy so created is called to assume 
the Executive chair. The wisdom of our fathers, foreseeing even the 
most dire possibilities, made sure that the Government should never 
be imperiled because of the uncertainty of human life. Men may die, 
but the fabrics of our free institutions remain unshaken. No higher 
or more assuring proof could exist of the strength and permanence of 
popular government than the fact that though the chosen of the people 
be struck down his constitutional successor is peacefully installed 
v.'ithout shock or strain except the sorrow which mourns the bereave- 
ment. All the noble aspirations of miy lamented predecessor which 
found expression in his life, the measures devised and suggested 
during his brief Administration to correct abuses, to enforce economy, 
to advance prosperity, and to promote the general welfare, to insure 
domestic security and maintain friendly and honorable relations with 
the nations of the earth, will be garnered in the hearts of the people: 
and it will be my earnest endeavor to profit, and to see that the nation 
shall profit, by his example and experience. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 6, 1881. 

The questions growing out of the proposed interoceanic waterway 
across the Isthmus of Panama are of grave national importance. 
This Government has not been unmindful of the solemn obligations 



Chester A. Arthur. 523 

imposed upon it by its compact of 1846 with Colombia, as the in- 
dependent and sovereign mistress of the territory crossed by the 
canal, and has sought to render them effective by fresh engagements 
with the Colombian Republic looking to their practical execution. 
The negotiations to this end, after they had reached what appeared 
to be a mutually satisfactory solution here, were met in Colombia 
by a disavowal of the powers which its envoy had assumed and by a 
proposal for renewed negotiation on a modified basis. 

Meanwhile this Government learned that Colombia had proposed 
to the European powers to join in a guaranty of the neutrality of the 
proposed Panama canal — a guaranty which would be in direct con- 
travention of our obligation as the sole guarantor of the integrity of 
Colombian territory and of the neutrality of the canal itself. My 
lamented predecessor felt it his duty to place before the European 
powers the reasons which make the prior guaranty of the United 
States indispensable, and for which the interjection of any foreign 
guaranty might be regarded as a superfluous and unfriendly act. 

Foreseeing the probable reliance of the British Government on 
the provisions of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of 1850 as affording 
room for a share in the guaranties which the United States covenanted 
with Colombia four years before, I have not hesitated to supplement 
the action of my predecessor by proposing to tier Majesty's Govern- 
ment the modification of that instrument and the abrogation of such 
clauses thereof as do not comport with the obligations of the United 
States toward Colombia or with the vital needs of the two friendly 
parties to the compact. 

Prominent among the matters which challenge the attention of 
Congress at its present session is the management of our Indian 
affairs. 

First. I recommend the passage of an act making the laws of the 
various States and Territories applicable to the Indian reservations 
within their borders and extending the laws of the State of Arkansas 
to the portion of the Indian Territory not occupied by the Five 
Civilized Tribes. 

The Indian should receive the protection of the law. He should 
be allowed to maintain in court his rights of person and property. He 
has repeatedly begged for this privilege. Its exercise would be very 
valuable to him in his progress toward civilization. 

Second. Of even greater importance is a measure which has been 
frequently recommended by my precedessor in office, and in further- 



524 History of the United States. 

ance of which several bills have been from time to time introduced in 
both Houses of Congress. The enactment of a general law permitting 
the allotment in severalty, to such Indians, at least, as desire it, of a 
reasonable quantity of land secured to them by patent, and for their 
own protection made inalienable for twenty or twenty-five years, is 
demanded for their present w^elfare and their permanent advancement. 

In return for such considerate action on the part of the Govern- 
ment, there is reason to believe that the Indians in large numbers 
would be persuaded to sever their tribal relations and to engage at 
once in agricultural pursuits. Many of them realize the fact that their 
hunting days are over and that it is now for their best interests to 
conform their manner of life to the new order of things. By no 
greater inducement than the assurance of permanent title to the soil 
can they be led to engage in the occupation of tilling it. 

The well-tested reports of their increasing interest in husbandry 
justify the hope and belief that enactment of such a statute as I 
recommend v.'ould be at once attended with gratifying results. A 
resort to the allotment system would have a direct and powerful in- 
fluence in dissolving the tribal bond, which is so prominent a feature of 
savage life, and which tends so strongly to perpetuate it. 

Third. I advise a liberal appropriation for the support of Indian 
schools, because of my confident belief that such a course is consistent 
with the wisest economy. 

Even among the most uncultivated Indian tribes there is reported 
to be a general and urgent desire on the part of the chiefs and older 
members for the education of their children. It is unfortunate, in 
view of this fact, that during the past year the means v.'hich have been 
at the command of the Interior Department for the purpose of Indian 
instruction has proved to be utterly inadequate. 

The success of the schools which are in operation at Hampton, 
Carlisle, and Forest Grove should not only encourage a more generous 
provision for the support of those institutions, but should prompt the 
establishment of others of a similar character. 



After careful consideration (April 4, 1882) of Senate bill No. 71, en- 
titled "An act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to 
Chinese," T herewith return it to the Senate, in which it originated, 
with my objections to its passage. 




TWENTY-FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 




PRESIDENT ARTHUR-S ANNOUNCEMENT OF PRESIDENT GAR- 
FIELD'S DEATH. 



^^^^^MS^ 






PRESIDENT ARTHUR-S SIGNATURE TO OFFICIAL ANNOUNCE- 
MENT OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S DEATH. 



Chester A. Arthur. 529 

A nation is justified in repudiating its treaty obligations only 
when they are in conflict with great paramount interests. Even 
then all possible reasonable means for modifying or changing thost 
obligations by mutual agreement should be exhausted before resorting 
to the supreme right of refusal to comply with them. 

These rules have governed the United States in their past inter- 
course with other powers ag one of the family of nations. I am 
persuaded that if Congress can feel that this act violates the faith of 
the nation as pledged to China it will concur with me in rejecting 
this particular mode of regulating Chinese immigration, and will en- 
deavor to find another which shall meet the expectations of the people 
of the United States without coming in conflict with the rights of 
China. 

The present treaty relations between that power and the United 
States spring from an antagonism which arose between our paramount 
domestic interests and our previous relations. 

The treaty commonly known as the Burlingame treaty conferred 
upon Chinese subjects the right of voluntary emigration to the United 
States for the purposes of curiosity or trade or as permanent residents, 
and was in all respects reciprocal as to citizens of the United States in 
China. It gave to the voluntary emigrant coming to the United 
States the right to travel there or to reside there, with all the 
privileges, immunities, or exemptions enjoyed by the citizens or sub- 
jects of the most favored nation. 

Under the operation of this treaty it was found that the institutions 
of the United States and the character of its people and their means 
of obtaining a livelihood might be seriously affected by the unrestricted 
introduction of Chinese labor. Congress attempted to alleviate this 
condition by legislation, but the act which it passed proved to be in 
violation of our treaty obligations, and, being returned by the Presi- 
dent with his objections, failed to become a law. 

Diplomatic relief was then sought. A new treaty was concluded 
with China. Without abrogating the Burlingame treaty, it was 
agreed to modify it so far that the Government of the United States 
might regulate, limit, or suspend the coming of Chinese laborers to 
the United States or their residence therein, but that it should not 
absolutely prohibit them, and that the limitation or suspension should 
be reasonable and should apply only to Chinese who might go to the 
United States as laborers, other classes not being included in the 
limhations. This treaty is unilateral, not reciprocal. It is a con- 



530 History of the United States. 

cession from China to the United States in hmitation of the rights 
which she was enjoying under the Burhngame treaty. It leaves us 
by our own act to determine when and how we will enforce those 
limitations. China may therefore fairly have a right to expect that 
in enforcing them we will take good care not to overstep the grant 
and take more than has been conceded to us. 



THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 4, 1883. 

The Secretary of the Navy reports that under the authority of the 
acts of August 5, 18S2, and March 3, 1883, the work of strengthening 
our Navy by the construction of modern vessels has been auspiciously 
begun. Three cruisers are in process of construction — the " Chicago," 
of 4,500 tons displacement, and the " Boston " and " Atlanta," each 
of ^,500 tons. They are to be ])uilt of steel, with the tensile strength 
and ductility prescribed by law, and in the combination of speed, en- 
durance, and armament are expected to compare favorably with the 
best unarmored war vessels of other nations. A fourth vessel, the 
" Dolphin," is to be constructed of similar material, and is intended 
to serve as a fleet dispatch boat. 

The double-turreted monitors " Puritan," " A.mphitrite," and " Ter- 
ror " have been launched on the Delaware River and a contract 
has been made for the supply of their machinery. A similar monitor, 
the " Monadnock," has been launched in California. 

The Naval Advisory Board and the Secretary recommend the com- 
pletion of the monitors, the construction of four gunboats, and also of 
three additional steel vessels like the " Chicago," " Boston," and 
" Dolphin." 

As an important measure of national defense, the Secretary urges 
also the immediate creation of an interior coast line of waterways 
across the peninsula of Florida, along the coast from Florida to 
Hampton Roads, between the Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware 
River, and through Cape Cod. 

I feel bound to impress upon the attention of Congress the neces- 
sity of continued progress in the reconstruction of the Navy. The 
condition of the public Treasury, as I have already intimated, makes 
the present an auspicious time for putting this branch of the service 
in a state of ef^ciency. 

That our naval strength should be made adequate for the defense 
of our harbors, the protection of our commercial interests, and the 



Chester A. Arthur. 531 

maintenance of our national honor is a proposition from which no 
patriotic citizen can withhold his assent. 

Whereas both Houses of Congress did on the 20th instant (Decem- 
ber, 1883) request the commemoration, on the 23d instant, of the one 
hundredth anniversary of the surrenda; by George Washington, at 
Annapolis, of his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the patriot 
forces of America; and 

Wliereas it is fitting that this memorable act, which not only signal- 
ized the termination of the heroic struggle of seven years for in- 
dependence, but also manifested Washington's devotion to the great 
principle that ours is a civic government of and by the people, should 
be generally observed throughout the United States: 

Now, therefore, I, Chester A. Arthur, President of the United 
States, do hereby recommend that either by appropriate exercises in 
connection with tlie religious services of the 23d instant or by such 
public observances as may be deemed proper on Monday, the 24th 
instant, this signal event in the history of American liberty be com- 
memorated; and further, I hereby direct tliat at 12 o'clock noon on 
Monday next the national salute be fired from all the forts throughout 
the country. 

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER I, 1884. 

On the 29th of February last (1884), I transmitted to the Congress 
the first annual report of the Civil Service Commission, together with 
communications from the heads of the several Executive Departments 
of the Government respecting the practical workings of the law under 
which the Commission had been acting. The good results therein, 
foreshadowed have been more than realized. 

The system has fully answered the expectations of its friends in 
securing competent and faithful public servants and in protecting the 
appointing officers of the Government from the pressure of personal 
importunity and from the labor of examining the claims and preten- 
sions of rival candidates for public employment. 

I transmit herewith to the Senate (December 10, 1884), for con- 
sideration with a view to ratification, a treaty signed on the ist of De- 
cember with the Republic of Nicaragua, providing for the construc- 
tion of an interoceanic canal across the territory of that State. 

The negotiation of this treaty was entered upon under a conviction 
that it was imperatively demanded by the present and future political 
and material interest^- of the United States, 



532 History of the United States, 

The establishment of water communication between the Atlantic 
and Pacific coasts of the Union is a necessity, the accomplishment 
of which, however, within the territory of the United States is a physi- 
cal impossibility. While the enterprise of our citizens has responded 
to the duty of creating means of speedy transit by rail between the two 
oceans, these great achievements are inadequate to supply a most 
important requisite of national union apd prosperity. 

For all maritime purposes the States upon the Pacific are more 
distant from those upon the Atlantic than if separated by either ocean 
alone. Europe and Africa are nearer to New York, and Asia nearer 
to California, than are these two great States to each other by sea. 
Weeks of steam voyage or months under sail are consumed in the 
passage around the Horn, with the disadvantage of traversing tem- 
pestuous waters or risking the navigation of the Straits of Magellan. 

A nation like ours can not rest satisfied with such a separation of 
its mutually dependent members. We possess an ocean border of 
considerably over 10,000 miles on the Atlantic and Gidf of Mexico, 
and, including Alaska, of some 10,000 miles on the Pacific. Within 
a generation the western coast has developed into an empire, with a 
large and rapidly growing population, with vast, but partially de- 
veloped, resources. At the present rate of increase the end of the 
century will see us a commonwealth of perhaps nearly 100,000,000 
inhabitants, of which the West should have a considerably larger and 
richer proportion than now. Forming one nation in interests and 
aims, the East and the West are more widely disjoined for all purposes 
of direct and economical intercourse by water and of national defense 
against maritime aggression than are most of the colonies of other 
powers from their mother country. 

The problem of establishing such water communication has long 
attracted attention. Many projects have been formed and surveys 
have been made of all possible available routes. As a knovvledge of 
the true topical conditions of the Isthmus was gained, insuperable 
difficulties in one case and another became evident, until by a process 
of elimination only two routes remained within range of profitable 
achievement, one by way of Panama and tlie other across Nicaragua. 

The treaty now laid before you provides for such a waterway 
through the friendly territory of Nicaragua. 

I invite your special attention to the provisions of the convention 
itself as best evidencing its scope. 

From respect to the independent sovereignty' of the Republic, 
through whose co-operation the project can alone be realized, the 



Chester A. Arthur. 533 

stipulations of the treaty look to the fullest recognition and protection 
of Nicaraguan rights in the premises. The United States have no 
motive or desire for territorial acquisition or political control beyond 
the present borders, and none such is contemplated by this treaty. 
The two Governments unite in framing this scheme as the sole means 
by which the v;ork, as indispensable to the one as to the other, can be 
accomplished under such circumstances as to prevent alike the possi- 
bility of conflict between them and of interference from without. 

The canal is primarily a domestic means of water communication 
between the Atlantic and Pacific shores of the two countries which 
unite for its constr action, the one contributing tlie territory and the 
other furnishing the money therefor. Recognizing the advantages 
which the world's commerce must derive from the work, appreciating 
the benefit of enlarged vise to the canal itself by contributing to its 
maintenance and by yielding an interest return on the capital invested 
therein, and inspired by the belief that any great enterprise which inures 
to the general benefit of the world is in some sort a trust for the 
common advancement of mankind, the two Governments have by this 
treaty provided for its peaceable use by all nations on equal terms, 
while reserving to the coasting trade of both countries, in which none 
but the contracting parties are interested, the privilege of favoring 
tolls. 

The treaty provides for the construction of a railway and telegraph 
line, if deemed advisable, as accessories to the canal, as both may be 
necessary for the economical construction of the work and probably 
in its operation wlien completed. 

The terms of the treaty as to the protection of the canal, while 
scrupulously confirniing the sovereignty of Nicaragua, amply secure 
that State and the work itself from possible contingencies of the future 
which it may not be within the sole power of Nicaragua to meet. 

From a purely commercial point of view the completion of such a 
waterway opens a most favorable prospect for the future of our 
country. The nations of the Pacific coast of South America will by 
its means be brought into close connection with our Gulf States. 
The relation of those American countries to the United States is that 
of a natural market, from which the want of direct communication has 
hitherto practically excluded us. By piercing the Isthmus the hereto- 
fore insuperable obstacles of time and sea distance disappear, and our 
vessels and productions will enter upon the world's competitive field 
with a decided advantage, of which they will avail themselves. 



534 History of the United States. 

When to this is joined the large coasting trade between the Atlantic 
and Pacific States, which must necessarily spring up, it is evident that 
this canal affords, even alone, an efficient means of restoring our 
flag to its former place on the seas. 

Such a domestic coasting trade would arise immediately, for even 
the fishing vessels of both seaboards, which now lie idle in the winter 
months, could then profitably carry goods between the Eastern and 
the Western States. 

The political effect of the canal will be to knit closer the States 
now depending upon railway corporations for all commercial and 
personal intercourse, and it will not only cheapen the cost of trans- 
portation, but will free individuals from the possibility of unjust 
discriminations. 

It will bring the European grain markets of demand within easy 
distance of our Pacific States, and wnll give to tlie manufacturers on 
the Atlantic seaboard economical access to the cities of China, thus 
breaking down the barrier which separates the principal manufactur- 
ing centers of the United States from the markets of the vast popula- 
tion of Asia, and placing the Eastern States of the Union for all 
purposes of trade midway between Europe and Asia. In point of 
time the gain for sailing vessels would be great, amounting from New 
York to San Francisco to a saving of seventy-five days; to Hong- 
kong, of twenty-seven days; to Shanghai, of thirty-four days, and 
to Callao, of fifty-two days. 

I may add that the canal can be constructed by the able Engineer 
Corps of our Army, under their thorough system, cheaper and better 
than any work of such magnitude can in any other way be built. 



I nominate (March 3, 1885) Ulysses S. Grant, formerly command- 
ing the armies of the United States, to be general on the retired list of 
the Army, with the full pay of such rank. 



Chester A. Arthur. 535 



LIFE OF CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 

CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR was born in Fairfield, Vt., Octo- 
ber 5, 1830. His father, Rev. \Mlliam Arthur, a Baptist 
clerg-yman, was born in Ireland. His mother was Malvina 
Stone. "Mr. Arthur entered the sophomore class of Union College in 
1845 and graduated in 1848 at the age of 18 years. He shortly after 
began the study of law and in 1853 entered the law office of Erastus D. 
Culver, in New York city. During that year he was admitted to the 
bar and became a memiber of the firm of Culver, Parker and Arthur. 
He married Miss Ellen Lewis Herndon, of Fredericksburg, Va., in 
1859. The next year he was appointed on Governor Edward D. Mor- 
gan's staff as engineer-in-chief, ranking as brigadier-general. In April, 
1 86 1, on the outbreak of the war, he became Quartermaster-General 
and at once began in New York city to prepare and send forward the 
State's troops required. He became Inspector-General February 
10, 1862. He retired from office December 31, 1862, when Horatio 
Seymour became governor, and resumed his law practice. In 1871 
he was appointed Collector of the Port of Nev/ York and held that 
office until 1878. He was nominated for Vice-President on the ticket 
with James A. Garfield and elected November 2, 1880. On the 
death of President Garfield, September 19, 1881, Mr. Arthur succeeded 
to the Presidency and took the oath of office on the 20th of Septem- 
ber, at his residence in New York city, and again in Washington at 
the Capitol, on the 22d of September. On leaving the White House 
he returned to New York city where, at his home, he died suddenly, 
November 18, 1886. He was buried in the Rural Cemetery at 
Albany. 



536 



History of the United States. 



A-N ^,^^ ^ , %, 




.4 

-^ ■ 

{ 



BIRTHPLACE OF QROVER CLEVELAND AT CALDWELL, NEW JERSEY, 

CHAPTER XXII. 



GROVER CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 



By Holmes Conrad, ex-Attorney-General of the United States. 



IV /r R. CLEVELAND is said to have declared, when elected Governor oi 
■*- the State of New^ York, that it was his purpose " to make the matter a 
business engagement between the people of the State and myself, in which the 
obligation on my side is to perform the duties assigned me with an eye -single 
to the interests of my employers." And in his first inaugural address as 
President of the United States, he said: " In the discharge of my official duty, 
I shall endeavor to be guided by a just and unstrained construction of the 
Constitution, a careful observance of the distinction between the powers 
granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the States or to the 



Grover Cleveland. 537 

people, and by a cautious appreciation of those functions whicli by the Con- 
stitution and laws have been especially assigned to the Executive branch of the 
Government." 

In his adherence to these rules of official conduct, in his Administration of 
the afifairs of the Federal Government, j\lr. Cleveland evinced a loftiness of 
courage, an unswerving fidelity to conviction, and an unvarying disregard of his 
own mere personal interests that compels the admiration and approval of all 
fair-minded and unprejudiced men. 

He sincerely desired, and cordially invited, the co-operation of the members 
of the legislative branch, in his endeavors to prevent lavish waste of the public 
money, debasement of the national currency, injury to the public credit, and 
mercenary intrusion upon the affairs or territory of foreign powers, but, 
deeply as he was convinced of the folly and mischief of these measures, and of 
his own inability to avert them without the co-operation of the Senators ajid 
Representatives, he steadfastly refused to acquire that aid, at tlie expense of 
his sense of official duty and responsibility, by surrendering to others the 
power of appointment to public offices, by approving acts for the payment of 
fraudulent pension claims, or for the erection of public buildings, at points 
where public need did not require them, or by perverting to mere party uses 
the powers confided to him for the public good. 

He vetoed scores of bills for the payment of pension claims, which he be- 
lieved to be fraudulent, and assigned in his messages the reasons for his action, 
and these remained unanswered. He vetoed bills for the erection of public 
buildings, on grounds which can not be shaken. He withheld his hand from 
measures which he believed to be vicious, when he knew that his resolute 
adherence to duty would alienate his party associates and inflame the hostile 
zeal of party opponents. 

Perhaps in no other course of policy has his judgment been so fully 
vindicated and his strenuous intrepidity been so conspicuously displayed, as in 
his persistent antagonism to the dangerous heresy of foreign conquest, and 
impudent intermeddling with the affairs of foreign powers. Selfish greed 
masked in the garb of ardent patriotism, employed the Federal Navy to over- 
throw the Government of Hawaii and set up a provisional government in its 
stead. A treaty of annexation had been negotiated, and was pending in the 
Senate when Mr. Cleveland entered upon his second Administration. He 
withdrew that treaty, and sent a commissioner to Hawaii to investigate the 
matter. In his annual message to Congress he said: "After a thorough and 
exhaustive examination Mr. Blount submitted to me his report, showing beyond 
all question that the constitutional government of Hawaii had been subverted 
with the active aid of our representative to that Government and through the 



538 History of the United States. 

intimidation caused by the presence of an armed naval force of the United 
States which was landed for that purpose at the instance of our minister." 
And in his special message of December 18, 1893, he said: " Thus it appears 
that Hawaii was taken possession of by the United States forces without the 
consent or wish of the Government of the islands, or of anybody else so far 
as shown, except the United States minister." And referring to the treaty, 
said: "Additional importance attached to this particular treaty of annexation, 
because it contemplated a departure from unbroken American traditions in 
providing for the addition to our territory of islands of the sea more than 
2,000 miles removed from our nearest coast." The motive of the United 
States minister who had precipitated the revolution in the islands is disclosed 
in his letter of February i, 1893, to the State Department, in which he declared. 
" The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe, and this is the golden hour for the 
United States to pluck it." Referring to the troubles then existing in Samoa, 
he said, in his second annual message of December, 1894: " Our participation 
in its establishment against the wishes of the natives was in plain defiance of 
the conservative teachings and warnings of the wise and patriotic men who 
laid the foundations of our free institutions, and I invite an expression of the 
judgment of Congress on the propriety of steps being taken by this Govern- 
ment looking to the withdrawal from its engagements with other powers on 
some reasonable terms not prejudicial to any of our existing rights." We are 
passing to-day through painful experiences, resulting from the disregard of 
his wise admonitions as to continued entanglement in the foreign alliance 
which involved us in the troubles in Samoa, which are adding nothing to the 
credit or renown of the United States. 

The disturbances in Cuba had become the subject of anxiety and alarm to 
the Government and people of the United States. Our citizens had large in- 
vestments of capital in that island, which were seriously imperilled by the war 
then raging between Spain and her colonists, and deep and earnest sympathy 
was felt and expressed for a people struggling for liberty. In his message of 
December 2, 1895, Mr. Cleveland said: * * * "The plain duty of their, our, 
Government is to observe in good faith the recognized obligations of inter- 
national relationship. The performance of this duty should not be made more 
difficult by a disregard on the part of our citizens of the obligations growing 
out of their allegiance to their country, which should restrain them from 
violating, as individuals, the neutrality which the nation of which they are 
members, is bound to observe in its relations to friendly sovereign States." 
And referring to the same subject in his message of December 7, 1896, he 
there said: " It is urged finally that, all other methods failing, the existing 
internecine strife in Cuba should be terminated by our intervention, even at the 



Grover Cleveland. 



539 



cost of a war between the United States and Spain — a war, which its advo- 
cates confidently prophesy could neither be large in its proportions nor doubt- 
ful in its issue. The correctness of this forecast need neither be affirmed nor 
denied. The United States has, nevertheless, a character to maintain as a 
nation, which plainly dictates that right and not might should be the rule of 
its conduct." 

And so on. to the end of his Administration, when the halls of Congress were 
resonant with clamorous cries for war with Spain, its precipitation sought to be 
justified on grounds of "humanity," and the event forestalled by appeals to 
" manifest destiny," when his judgment was sought to be swerved by intimida- 
tions of popular vengeance, and allu-ements of popular applause and reward, 
Mr. Cleveland stood firm, with his '' eye single to the interests of his em- 
ployers," and still guided by a " just and unstrained construction of the Con- 
stitution," he withstood the ravings of the multitude, and standing alone at 
the helm, he kept the ship, of State true to the chart which he had sworn to 
follow. 



540 History of the United States. 



FIRST ADMINISTRATION OF GROVER CLEVELAND, 

1885-1889. 

IT seems to me there is little more to be said, In addition to my 
official documents, which are already on record, of my two 
Administrations. 

Passing over those things in my Administrations that stand out 
most prominently in the public mind, and may be termed epoch mak- 
ing, namely the Venezuela affair, the tariff, and the currency, — the 
matters which I now take the most satisfaction in are the home duties 
or parochial affairs. Among these lesser affairs were the protecting 
the rights of the settlers on the public lands against the aggressions of 
the railroad companies; maintaining the rights of the Indians against 
land grabbers and boomers, who would drive the natives from their 
home soil; and preventing the wasting of public funds as far as I 
could in vmworthy pensions. 

However I may be judged in other respects, I believe that it will be 
admitted that there never was an Administration, in which there was 
so much attention given to saving the people's money. The general 
idea that has prevailed before and since seems to be that the Govern- 
ment is like a goose from which everyone wants to get a quill. I be- 
lieve that one-third of the pension list is fraudulent. In getting money 
from the Government in that way widespread perjury has been done. 
It has been demoralizing to the whole people. I sought to put a stop 
to this during my two terms by wholesale vetoing of such measures. 
But Congress crowded them upon me so fast that many cases went 
into effect simply because I could not write vetoes fast enough to stop 
them within the time limit allowed the President. 

To save the people's money also I directed the Attorney-General 
to begin action against the Union Pacific Railroad Company to return 
to the National Treasury the many millions of Government funds 
that had been spent in building that road. I am happy to know that 
that has been accomplished since my last term. 

This is still the government of all the people. It is the duty of 
those serving the people in public place to closely limit public ex- 
penditures to the actual needs of the Govenunent economically admin- 
istered, because this boimds the right of the Government to exact 
tribute from the earnings of labor or the property of the citizen, and 



Grover Cleveland, 541 

because public extravagance begets extravagance among the people. 
We should never be ashamed of the simplicity and prudential econo- 
mies which are best suited to the operation of a Republican form of 
government and most compatible with the mission of the American 
people. 

It is the policy of independence, favored by our position and de- 
fended by our known love of justice and by our power. It is the 
policy of peace suitable to our interests. It is the policy of neutrality, 
rejecting any share in foreign broils and ambitions upon other conti- 
nents and repelling their intrusion here. It is the policy of Monroe 
and of Washington and Jeflferson — " Peace, commerce, and honest 
friendship with all nations; entangling alliance with none." 

One of my first acts after entering upon the duties of my first Ad- 
ministration was the issuing of a far-reaching civil service order on 
March 18, 1885, which was as follows: 

In the exercise of the power vested in the President by the Constitution, and 
by virtue of the seventeen hundred and fifty-third section of the Revised 
Statutes and of the civil service act approved January 16, 1883, the following 
rule for the regulation and improvement of the executive civil service is hereby 
amended and promulgated, as follows: 

RULE XXII. 

Any person who has been in the classified departmental service for one year 
or more immediately previous may, when the needs of the service require it, 
be transferred or appointed to any other place therein upon producing a cer- 
tificate from the Civil Service Commission that sucli person has passed at the 
required grade one or more examinations which are together equal to that 
necessary for original entrance to the place which would be secured by the 
transfer or appointment; and any person who has for throe years last preceding 
served as a clerk in the office of the President of the United States may be 
transferred or appointed to any place in the classified service without 
examination. 

I do not wish to take undue credit for reorganizing the Army and 
Navy, but I look back with satisfaction upon the steps, which I took in 
that direction at the beginning of my first Administration. 

In the Navy Department I found the wheels of progress clogged. 
Heads of departments had fallen into ruts, from which they could not 
be dragged, except by radical measures. My most able Secretary 
of the Navy, W. C. Whitney, went at this work with a wonderful zeal. 



54^2 History of the United States. 

He set things going in new lines. He familiarized himself so thor- 
oughly with details of modern naval construction that I believe he 
could have designed and built a warship himself. 

In my message of 1885 I said that all nuist admit the importance 
of an efifective Navy to a nation like ours, having such an extended 
seacoast to protect. And yet we had not a single vessel of war that 
could keep the seas against a first-class vessel of any important power. 
Such a condition, I said, ought not longer to continue. The nation 
that can not resist aggression is constantly exposed to it. Its foreign 
policy is of necessity weak, and its negotiations are conducted with 
disadvantage, because it is not in condition to enforce the terms dic- 
tated by its sense of right and justice. 

Inspired, as I was, by the hope, shared by all patriotic citizens, 
that the day was not very far distant when our Navy would be such as 
befitted our standing among the nations of the earth, and rejoiced at 
every step that leads in the direction of such a consummation, I deemed 
it my duty to especially direct the attention of Congress to the close 
of the report of the Secretary of the Navy, in which the humiliating 
weakness of the organization of his Department was exhibited, and 
the startling abuses and waste of its prevailing methods were exposed. 

The conviction was forced upon us with the certainty of mathemati- 
cal demonstration, that before we proceeded further in the restoration 
of a Navy we needed a thoroughly reorganized Navy Department. 
The fact that within seventeen years more than seventy-five millions of 
dollars had been spent in the construction, repair, equipment, and 
armament of vessels, and the further fact that, instead of an efifective 
and creditable fleet, we had only the discontent and apprehension of 
a nation undefended by war vessels, added to the disclosures now 
made did not permit us to doubt that every attempt to revive our 
Navy had thus far, for the most part, been misdirected, and all our 
efforts in that direction had been little better than blind gropings, and 
expensive, aimless follies. 

Unquestionably if we were content with the maintenance of a Navy 
Department simply as a shabby ornament to the Government, a con- 
stant watchfulness might prevent some of the scandal and abuse which 
had found their way into our prevailing organization, and its incurable 
waste might be reduced to the minimum. But if we desired to build 
ships for usefulness instead of naval reminders of the days that wer^e 
past, we needed a Department organized for the work, supplied with 
all the talent and ingenuity our country afforded, prepared to take 



Grover Cleveland. 543 

advantage of the experience of other nations, systematized so that all 
effort should unite and lead in one direction, and fully imbued with 
the conviction that war vessels, though new, were useless unless they 
combined all that the ingenuity of man had up to that day brought 
forth relating to their construction. 

I earnestly commended the portion of the Secretary's report de- 
voted to this subject to the attention of Congress, in the hope that 
his suggestions touching the reorganization of his Department could 
be adopted as the first step toward the reconstruction of our Navy. 

In the message to Congress of December, 1885, the report of the 
Secretary of War was submitted, calling attention of Congress to the 
detailed account which it contained of the administration of his De- 
partment, and his recommendations and suggestions for the improve- 
ment of the service. 

The Army consisted, at that time, of 2,154 officers and 24,705 en- 
listed men. 

The expenses of the Department for the fiscal year ended June 30, 
1885, including $13,164,394.60 for public works and river and harbor 
improvements, were $45,850,999.54. 

The acting Judge-Advocate-General reported that the number of 
trials by general courts-martial during the year was 2,328, and that 
11,851 trials took place before garrison and regimental courts-martial. 
The suggestion that probably more than half the Army have been 
tried for offenses, great and small, in one year, may well arrest atten- 
tion. Of course many of these trials before garrison and regimental 
courts-martial were for offenses almost frivolous; and I recommended 
tnat a way be devised to dispose of these in a more summary and less 
inconvenient manner than by court-martial. 

If some of the proceedings of courts-martial w4iich I had occasion 
to examine presented the ideas of justice which generally prevail in 
these tribunals, I was satisfied that they should be much reformed, if 
the honor and the honesty of the Army and Navy were by their in- 
strumentality to be vindicated and protected. 

I called attention then to the emergencies growing out of civil war 
in the United States of Colombia. This demanded of the Govern- 
ment at the beginning of my Administration the employment of armed 
forces to fulfill its guaranties under the thirty-fifth article of the treaty 
of 1846, in order to keep the transit open across the Isthmus of Pan- 
ama. Desirous of exercising only the powers expressly reserved to 
us by the treaty, and mindful of the rights of Colombia, the forces 



544 History of the United States. 

sent to the Isthmus were instructed to confine their action to " posi- 
tively and efficaciously " preventing the transit and its accessories from 
being " interrupted or embarrassed." The restoration of peace on the 
Isthnms by the re-establishment of the constituted government there 
being accomplished, the forces of the United States were withdrawn. 

The interest of the United States in a practicable transit for ships 
across the strip of land separating the Atlantic from the Pacific has 
been repeatedly manifested during the last half century. 

My immediate predecessor caused to be negotiated with Nicaragua 
a treaty for the construction, by and at the sole cost of the United 
States, of a canal through Nicaraguan territory, and laid it before the 
Senate. Pending the action of that body thereon, I withdrew the 
treaty for re-examination. Attentive consideration of its provisions 
led me to withhold it from resubmission to the Senate. 

Maintaining, as I did, the tenets of a line of precedents from Wash- 
ington's day, which proscribe entangling alliances with foreign states, 
I did not favor a policy of acquisition of new and distant territory or 
the incorporation of remote interests with our own. 

The laws of progress are vital and organic, and we mus*: be con- 
scious of that irresistible tide of commercial expansion which, as the 
concomitant of our active civilization, day by day is being urged on- 
ward by those increasing facilities of production, transportation, and 
comnumication to which steam and electricity have given birth; but 
our duty in the present instructs us to address ourselves mainly to the 
development of the vast resources of the great area committed to our 
charge and to the cultivation of the arts of peace within our own bor- 
ders, though jealously alert in preventing the American hemisphere 
from being involved in the political problems and complications of 
distant governments. Therefore I was unable to recommend propo- 
sitions involving paramount privileges of ownership or right outside of 
our own territory, when coupled with absolute and unlimited engage- 
rrrents to defend the territorial integrity of the state where such inter- 
ests lie. While the general project of connecting the two oceans by 
means of a canal is to be encouraged, I am of opinion that any scheme 
to that end to be considered with favor should be free from the features 
alluded to. 

The Argentine Government having revived the long dormant ques- 
tion of the Falkland Islands by claiming from the United States in- 
demnity for their loss, attributed to the action of the commander of 
the sloop of war " Lexington " in breaking up a piratical colony on 




TWENTY-SECOND AND TWENTY-FOURTH PRESIDENT OF THE TNITED STATES. 



C ij^l.^-tfol ^A<liU,..K:■ cj ttu iflu.UT.i. v/L^.^ ,,/ e 4, 



vif yiA i.-x( 



c -4^ t ■>(oc-{<Av,xt)a-.<rK 1 






(/ 






PRESIDENT CLEVELAND'S PROCLAAL\TION ADMITTING THE 
TERRITORY OF WASHINGTON AS A STATE. 



Grover Cleveland. 547 

those islands in 1831, and their subsequent occupation by Great 
Britain in view of the ample justification for the act of the " Lexing- 
ton " and the derelict condition of the islands before and after their 
alleged occupation by Argentine colonists, I declared that this Gov- 
ernment considered the claim as wholly groundless. 

The harmony of our relations with China, in 1885, was fully sus- 
tained. 

In the application of the acts passed to execute the treaty of 1880, 
restrictive of the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United 
States, individual cases of hardship occurred beyond the power of the 
Executive to remedy, and calling for judicial determination. 

The condition of the Chinese question in the Western States and Ter- 
ritories was, despite this restrictive legislation, far from being satis- 
factory. The outbreak in Wyoming Territory, where numbers of un- 
ofifending Chinamen, indisputably within the protection of the treaties 
and the law, were murdered by a mob, was fresh in the minds of all, 
and there was apprehension lest the bitterness of feeling against the 
Mongolian race on the Pacific slope might find vent in similar law- 
less demonstrations. All the power of this Government should be 
exerted to maintain the amplest good faith toward China in the treat- 
ment of these men, and the inflexible sterness of the law in bring- 
ing the wrongdoers to justice should be insisted upon. 

In reviewing the financial situation in my first annual message, I 
summed up the situation as follows: 

The ordinary receipts from all sources for the fiscal year ended June 
30, 1885, were $322,690,706.38. Of this sum $181,471,939.34 was re- 
ceived from customs and $112,498,725.54 from internal revenue. The 
total receipts, as given above, were $24,829,163.54 less than those for 
the year ended June 30, 1884. This diminution embraces a falling off 
of $13,595,550.42 in the receipts from customs and $9,687,346.97 in 
the receipts from internal revenue. 

The total ordinary expenditures of the Government for the fiscal 
year were $260,226,935.50, leaving a surplus in the Treasury at the 
close of the year of $63,463,771.27. This is $40,929,854.32 less than 
the surplus reported at the close of the previous year. 

The expenditures are classified as follows: 

For civil expenses $23,826,942 n 

For foreign intercourse 5-439.D09 1 1 

For Indians 6,552,494 63 



548 History of the United States. 

For pensions $56, 102,267 49 

For the military, including river and harbor improvements and 

arsenals 42,670,578 47 

For the Navy, including vessels, machinery, and improvements 

of navy-yards 16,021,079 69 

For interest on the public debt 51,386,256 47 

For the District of Columbia 3499.650 95 

For miscellaneous expenditures, including public buildings, 

light-houses, and collecting the revenue 54,728,056 21 



The amotint paid on the public debt during the fiscal year ended 
June 30, 1885, was $45,993,235.43, and there has been paid since that 
date and up to November i, 1885, the sum of $369,828, leaving the 
amount of the debt at the last-named date $1,514,475,860.47. There 
was, however, at that time in the Treasury, applicable to the general 
purposes of the Government, the sum of $66,818,292.38. 

I then stated my conviction that nothing more important than the 
prevailing condition of our currency and coinage could claim your at- 
tention. 

Since February, 1878, the Government had, under the compulsory 
provisions of law, purchased silver bullion and coined the same at the 
rate of more than $2,000,000 every month. By this process up to that 
date, December 8, 1885, 215,759,431 silver dollars had been coined. 

A reasonable appreciation of a delegation of power to the General 
Government would limit its exercise, without express restrictive words, 
to the people's needs and the requirements of the public welfare. 

Upon this theory the authority to " coin money " given to Congress 
by the Constitution, if it permits the ptirchase by the Government of 
bullion for coinage in any event, does not jtistify such purchase and 
coinage to an extent beyond the amount needed for a sufficient circu- 
lating medium. 

The desire to utilize the silver product of the country should not 
lead to a misuse or the perversion of this power. 

The necessity for such an addition to the silver currency of the 
nation as was compelled by the silver coinage act was negatived by 
the fact that up to that time only about 50,000,000 of the silver dol- 
lars so coined had actually found their way into circulation, leaving 
more than 165,000,000 in the possession of the Government, the cus- 
tody of which entailed a considerable expense for the construction of 



Grover Cleveland. 549 

vaults for its deposit. Against this latter amount there were outstand- 
ing silver certificates amounting to about $93,000,000. 

Every month two millions of gold in the pul)lic Treasury were paid 
out for two millions or more of silver dollars, to be added to the idle 
mass already accumulated. 

If continued long enough, this operation would result in the sub- 
stitution of silver for all the gold the Government owns applicable to 
it general purposes. It would not do to rely upon the customs re- 
ceipts of the Government to make good this drain of gold, because 
the silver thus coined having been made legal tender for all debts and 
dues, public and private, at times 58 per cent, of the receipts for duties 
would have been in silver or silver certificates, while the average 
within that period was 20 per cent. The proportion of silver and its 
certificates received by the Government would probably increase as 
time went on, for the reason that the nearer the period approaches 
when it will be obliged to offer silver in payment of its obligations the 
greater inducement there will be to hoard gold against depreciation 
in the value of silver or for the purpose of speculating. 

This hoarding of gold had already begun. 

When the time comes that gold has been withdrawn from circula- 
tion, then will be apparent the difference between the real value of the 
silver dollar and a dollar in gold, and the two coins will part company. 
Gold, still the standard of value and necessary in our dealings with 
other countries, will be at a premium over silver; banks which have 
substituted gold for the deposits of their customers may pay them 
with silver bought with such gold, thus making a handsome profit; 
rich speculators will sell their hoarded gold to their neighbors who 
need it to liquidate their foreign debts, at a ruinous premium over 
silver, and the laboring men and women of the land, most defenseless 
of all, will find that the dollar received for the wage of their toil has 
sadly shrunk in its purchasing power. 

The most intricate and difficult subject in charge of the Interior 
Department at the outset of my first Administration was the treatment 
and management of the Indians. I was satisfied that some progress 
might be noted in their condition as a result of a prudent administra- 
tion of the present laws and regulations for their control. 

But there was lack of a fixed purpose or policy on this subject, 
which should be supplied. It was useless to dilate upon the wrongs of 
the Indians, and as useless to indulge in the heartless belief that be- 
cause their wrongs were revenged in their own atrocious manner, 
therefore thev should be exterminated. 



550 History of the United States. 

They are within the care of our Government and their rights are, 
or should be, protected from invasion by the most solemn obligations. 
They are properly enough called the wards of the Government; and it 
should be borne in mind that this guardianship involves on our part 
efiforts for the improvement of their condition and the enforcement of 
their rights. There seems to be general concurrence in the proposi- 
tion that the ultimate object of their treatment should be their civiliza- 
tion and citizenship. Fitted by these to keep pace in the march of 
progress with the advanced civilization about them, they will readily 
assimilate with the mass of our population, assuming the responsibili- 
ties and receiving the protection incident to this condition. 

The difficulty appears to be in the selection of the means to be at 
present employed toward the attainment of this result. 

Our Indian population, exclusive of those in Alaska, was reported 
in 1885, as numbering 260,000, nearly all being located on lands set 
apart for their use and occupation, aggregating over 134,000,000 acres. 
These lands were included in the boundaries of 171 reservations of dif- 
ferent dimensions, scattered in 21 States and Territories. 

One of the first actions I took for the preservation of the rights of 
Indians to the exclusive use of their own reservations, was on July 
23, 1885, when I issued the following proclamation: 

Whereas certain portions of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indian 
Reservation, in the Indian Territory, are occupied by persons other 
than Indians, who claim the right to keep and graze cattle thereon 
by agreement made with the Indians for whose special possession and 
occupancy the said lands have been reserved by the Government of 
the United States, or under other pretexts and licenses; and 

Whereas all such agreements and licenses are deemed void and of 
no effect, and the persons so occupying said lands with cattle are con- 
sidered vmlawfully upon the domain of the United States so reserved 
as aforesaid; and 

Whereas the claims of such persons under said leases and licenses 
and their unauthorized presence upon such reservation have caused 
complaint and discontent on the part of the Indians located thereon, 
and are likely to cause serious outbreaks and disturbances: 

Now, therefore, I. Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, 
do hereby order and direct that all persons other than Indians who are 
now upon any part of said reservation for the pr.rpose of grazing cat- 
tle thereon, and their servants and agents, and all other unauthorized 
persons now upon said reservation, do, within forty days from the date 



Grover Cleveland. 551 

of this proclamation, depart and entirely remove therefrom with their 
cattle, horses, and other property. 

In my second annual message, December 6, 1886, I stated that the 
ordinary receipts of the Government for the fiscal year ended June 
30, 1886, were $336,439,727.06. Of this amount $192,905,023.41 was 
received from customs and $116,805,936.48 from internal revenue. The 
total receipts, as here stated, were $13,749,020.68 greater than for the 
previous year, but the increase from customs was $11,434,084.10 and 
from internal revenue $4,407,210.94, making a gain in these items for 
the last year of $15,841,295.04, a falling ofif in other resources, reduc- 
ing the total increase to the smaller amount mentioned. 

The total ordinary expenses of the Government for the fiscal year 
ended June 30, 1886, were $242,483,138.50, being less by $17,788,797 
than such expenditures for the year preceding, and leaving a surplus in 
the Treasury at the close of the last fiscal year of $93,956,588.56, as 
against $63,463,771.27 at the close of the previous year, being an in- 
crease in such surplus of $30,492,817.29. 

The sum paid upon the public debt during the fiscal year ended June 
30, 1886, was $44,551,043.36. 

During the twelve months ended October 31, 1886, 3 per cent, 
bonds were called for redemption amounting to $127,283,100, of 
which $80,643,200 was so called to answer the requirements of the law 
relating to the sinking fund and $46,639,900 for the purpose of reduc- 
ing the public debt by application of a part of the surplus in the Treas- 
ury to that object. Of the bonds thus called $102,269,450 became 
subject under such calls to redemption prior to November i, 1886. 
The remainder, amounting to $25,013,650, matured under the calls 
after that date. 

In addition to the amount subject to payment and cancellation prior 
to November ist, there were also paid before that day certain of these 
bonds, with the interest thereon, amounting to $5,072,350, which were 
anticipated as to their maturity, of which $2,664,850 had not been 
called. Thus $107,341,800 had been actually applied prior to the ist 
of November, 1886, to the extinguishment of our bonded and interest- 
bearing debt, leaving on that day still outstanding the sum of 
$1,153,443,112. Of this amount $86,848,700 were still represented by 
3 per cent, bonds. 

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1886. there were coined, under 
the compulsory silver coinage act of 1878, 29,838,905 silver dollars, and 
the cost of the silver used in such coinage was $23,448,960.01. There 



552 History of the United States. 

had been coined up to the close of the previous fiscal year under the 
provisions of the law 203,882,554 silver dollars, and on the 1st day of 
December, 1886, the total amount of such coinage was $247,131,549. 

The Director of the Mint reported that at the time of the passage of 
the law of 1878 directing this coinage the intrinsic value of the dollars 
thus coined was 94 -| cents each, and that on the 31st day of July, 1886, 
the price of silver reached the lowest stage ever known, so that the 
intrinsic or bullion price of our standard silver dollar at that date was 
less than y2 cents. The price of silver on the 30th day of November 
last was such as to make these dollars intrinsically worth 78 cents 
each. 

These dififerences in value of the coins represent the fluctuations in 
the price of silver, and they certainly do not indicate that compulsory 
coinage by the Government enhances the price of that commodity or 
secures uniformity in its value. 

Every fair and legal effort had been made by the Treasury Depart- 
ment to distribute this currency among the people. The withdrawal 
of United States Treasury notes of small denominations and the is- 
suing of small silver certificates had been resorted to in the endeavor 
to accomplish this result, in obedience to the will and sentiments of 
the representatives of the people in the Congress. 

At the time of my third annual message, December 6, 1887, the 
country was confronted with a condition of the national finances 
which imperatively demands immediate and careful consideration. I, 
therefore, devoted myself to treating that subject, and consequently 
that document has become known as my " Tariff Message." The fol- 
lowing are its essential features, which as it has become more or less 
historic, I do not change in any particular, except to slightly abridge: 

The amount of money annually exacted through the operation of 
present laws, from the industries and necessities of the people, largely 
exceeds the sum necessary to meet the expenses of the Government. 

When we consider that the theory of our institutions guarantees to 
every citizen the full enjoyment of all the fruits of his industry and 
enterprise, with only such deduction as may be his share toward the 
careful and economical maintenance of the Government which pro- 
tects him, it is plain that the exaction of more than this is indefensible 
extortion and a culpable betrayal of American fairness and justice. 
This wrong inflicted upon those who bear the burden of national taxa- 
tion, like other wrongs, multiplies a brood of evil consequences. The 
public Treasury, which should only exist as a conduit conveying the 



Grover Cleveland. 553 

people's tribute to its legitimate objects of expenditure, becomes a 
hoarding- place for the money needlessly withdrawn from trade and 
the people's use, thus crippling our national energies, suspending our 
country's development, preventing investment in productive enter- 
prise, threatening financial disturbance, and inviting schemes of pub- 
lic plunder. 

This condition of our Treasury is not altogether new, and it has 
more than once of late been submitted to the people's representatives 
in the Congress, who alone can apply a remedy. And yet the situation 
still continues, with aggravated incidents, more than ever presaging 
financial convulsion and widespread disaster. 

It will not do to neglect this situation because its dangers are not 
now palpably imminent and apparent. They exist none the less cer- 
tainly, and await the unforeseen and unexpected occasion when sud- 
denly they will be precipitated upon us. 

On the 30th day of June, 1885, the excess of revenues over public 
expenditures, after complying with the annual requirement of the 
sinking-fund act, was $17,859,735.84; during the year ended June 30, 
1886, such excess amounted to $49,405,545.20, and during the year 
ended June 30, 1887, it reached the sum of $55,567,849.54. 

The annual contributions to the sinking fund during the three years 
above specified, amounting in the aggregate to $138,058,320.94, and 
deducted from the surplus as stated, were made by calling in for that 
purpose outstanding 3 per cent, bonds of the Government. During 
the six months prior to June 30, 1887, the surplus revenue had grown 
so large by repeated accumulations, and it was feared the withdrawal 
of this great sum of money needed by the people would so afifect the 
business of the country, that the sum of $79,864,100 of such surplus 
was applied to the payment of the principal and interest of the 3 per 
cent, bonds still outstanding, and which were then payable at the option 
of the Government. The precarious condition of financial affairs 
among tl\e people still needing relief, immediately after the 30th day 
of June, 1887, the remainder of the 3 per cent, bonds then outstanding, 
amounting with principal and interest to the sum of $18,877,500, were 
called in and applied to the sinking fund contribution for the current 
fiscal year. Notwithstanding these operations of the Treasury De- 
partment, representations of distress in business circles not only con- 
tinued, but increased, and absolute peril seemed at hand. In these cir- 
cumstances the contribution to the sinking fund for the current fiscal 
year was at once completed by the expenditure of $27,684,283.55 in the 



554 History of the United States. 

purchase of Government bonds not yet due bearing 4 and 4I per cent, 
interest, the premium paid thereon averaging about 24 per cent, for 
the former and 8 per cent, for the latter. In addition to this, the in- 
terest accruing during the current year upon the outstanding bonded 
indebtedness of the Government was to some extent anticipated, and 
banks selected as depositories of public money were permitted to some- 
what increase their deposits. 

While the expedients thus employed to release to the people the 
money lying idle in the Treasury served to avert immediate danger, 
our surplus revenues have continued to accumulate, the excess for 
the present year amounting on the ist day of December to 
$55,258,701.19, and estimated to reach the sum of $113,000,000 on 
the 30th of June next, at which date it is expected that this sum, added 
to prior accumulations, will swell the surplus in the Treasury to 
$140,000,000. 

There seems to be no assurance that, with such a withdrawal from 
use of the people's circulating medium, our business community may 
not in the near future be subjected to the same distress which was 
quite lately produced from the same cause. And while the functions 
of our National Treasury should be few and simple, and while its 
best condition would be reached, I believe, by its entire disconnection 
with private business interests, yet when, by a perversion of its pur- 
poses, it idly holds money uselessly subtracted from the channels of 
trade, there seems to be reason for the claim that some legitimate 
means should be devised by the Government to restore in an emer- 
gency, without waste or extragagance, such money to its place among 
the people. 

If such an emergency arises, there now exists no clear and un- 
doubted executive power of relief. Heretofore the redemption of 3 
per cent, bonds, which were payable at the option of the Government, 
has afforded a means for the disbursement of the excess of our reve- 
nues; but these bonds have all been retired, and there are no bonds 
outstanding the payment of which we have a right to insist upon. 
The contribution to the sinking fund which furnishes the occasion for 
expenditure in the purchase of bonds has been already made for the 
current year, so that there is no outlet in that direction. 

In the present state of legislation the only pretense of any existing 
executive power to restore at this time any part of our surplus reve- 
nues to the people by its expenditures consists in the supposition that 
the Secretary of the Treasury may enter the market and purchase the 



'7 y ^ , ^ 



1^ i - 

^ . '//^' _».,'. —i' 'v' -/ V -^ _/■ 

~^i--^L^'~:i^ii.X~ ■>— iT"^ '■'■:>. '"L'l^^i-- ^-^ -"'^ C *,--'^ ^L ','1^ »-<t<i L. C-f- j^^t>Vii--T-it^i,'^ 

'^ ' ' ■ ' ' '' i 

•si^'^ ^t^^ ,in^ir^i U-^,.^^^ ^-t^^ iTu-^ruijU^ -i^^i. fvlt'ua,*^,. -<^-v- -^l^— 

// ' ^ ^ • f ^ ' • / ' 

i:S^*:-^^£l^x. ^J^ 'i^.^Zt^ ^-f^Zl', ^I^-J^^' di^^'-^U^i^ 

PRESIDENT CLEVELAND'S TROCLAALATION ON UTAH'S 
ADMISSION TO THE UNION. 



•c . L-i- 









PRESIDENT CLEVELAND'S SIGNATURE TO A STATE 
DOCUMENT. 



Grover Cleveland. 557 

bonds of the Government not yet due, at a rate of premium to be 
agreed upon. The only provision of law from which such a power 
could be derived is found in an appropriation bill passed a number of 
years ago, and it is subject to the suspicion that it was intended as 
temporary and limited in its application, instead of conferring a con- 
tinuing discretion and authority. No condition ought to exist which 
would justify the grant of power to a single official, upon his judg- 
ment of its necessity, to withhold from or release to the business of 
the people, in an unusual manner, money held in the Treasury, and 
thus affect at his will the financial situation of the country; and if it is 
deemed wise to lodge in the Secretary of the Treasury the authority in 
the present juncture to purchase bonds, it should be plainly vested, 
and provided, as far as possible, with such checks and limitations as 
will define this official's right and discretion and at the same time re- 
lieve him from undue responsibility. 

In considering the cjuestion of purchasing bonds as a means of re- 
storing to circulation the surplus money accumulating in the Treasury, 
it should be borne in mind that premiums must of course be paid 
upon such purchase, that there may be a large part of these bonds 
held as investments which can not be purchased at any price, and that 
combinations among holders who are willing to sell may unreasonably 
enhance the cost of such bonds to the Government. 

It has been suggested that the present bonded debt might be re- 
funded at a less rate of interest and the difference between the old 
and new security paid in cash, thus finding use for the surplus in the 
Treasur\^ The success of this plan, it is apparent, must depend upon 
the volition of the holders of the present bonds; and it is not entirely 
certain that the inducement which must be offered them would result 
in more financial benefit to the Government than the purchase of 
bonds, while the latter proposition would reduce the principal of the 
debt by actual payment instead of extending it. 

The proposition to deposit the money held by the Government in 
banks throughout the country for use by the people is, it seems to me, 
exceedingly objectionable in principle, as establishing too close a 
relationship between the operations of the Government Treasury and 
the business of the country and too extensive a commingling of their 
money, thus fostering an unnatural reliance in private business upon 
public funds. If this scheme should be adopted, it should only be 
done as a temporary expedient to meet an urgent necessity. Legisla- 
tive and executive effort should generally be in the opposite direc- 



558 History of the Uxited States. 

tion, and should have a tendency to divorce, as much and as fast 
as can be safely done, the Treasury Department from private enter- 
prise. 

Of course it is not expected that unnecessary and extravagant ap- 
propriations will be made for the purpose of avoiding the accumula- 
tion of an excess of revenue. Such expenditure, besides the de- 
moralization of all just conceptions of public duty which it entails, 
stimulates a habit of reckless improvidence not in the least consistent 
v/ith the mission of our people or the high and beneficent purposes 
of our Government. 

I have deemed it my duty to thus bring to the knowledge of my 
countrymen, as well as to the attention of their representatives charged 
with the responsibility of legislative relief, the gravity of our financial 
situation. The failure of the Congress heretofore to provide against 
the dangers which it was quite evident the very nature of the diffi- 
culty must necessarily produce caused a condition of financial distress 
and apprehension since your last adjournment which taxed to the ut- 
most all the authority and expedients within executive control; and 
these appear now to be exhausted. If disaster results from the con- 
tinued inaction of Congress, the responsibility must rest where it 
belongs. 

Though the situation thus far considered is fraught with danger 
which should be fully realized, and though it presents features of 
wrong to t?ie people as well as peril to the country, it is but a result 
growing out of a perfectly palpable and apparent cause, constantly 
reproducing the same alarming circumstances — a congested National 
Treasury and a depleted monetary condition in the business of the 
country. It need hardly be stated that while the present situation 
demands a remedy, we can only be saved from a like predicament in 
the future by the removal of its cause. 

Our scheme of taxation, by means of which this needless surplus 
is taken from the people and put into the public Treasury, consists 
of a tariff or duty levied upon importations from abroad and internal 
revenue taxes levied upon the consumption of tobacco and spirituous 
and malt liquors. It must be conceded that none of the things subjected 
to internal revenue taxation are, strictly speaking, necessaries. There 
appears to be no just complaint of this taxation by the consumers of 
these articles, and there seems to be nothing so well able to bear the 
burden without hardship to any portion of the people. 

But our present tariff laws, the vicious, inequitable, and illogical 



Grover Cleveland. 559 

source of unnecessary taxation, ought to be at once revised and 
amended. These laws, as their primary and plain effect, raise the 
price to consumers of all articles imported and subject to duty by pre- 
cisely the sum paid for such duties. Thus the amount of the^ duty 
measures the tax paid by those who purchase for use these imported 
articles. Many of these things, however, are raised or manufactured 
in our own country, and the duties now levied upon foreign goods and 
products are called protection to these home manufactures, because 
they render it possible for those of our people who are manufacturers 
to make these taxed articles and sell them for a ])rice equal to that 
demanded for the imported goods that have paid customs duty. So 
it happens that while comparatively a few use the imported articles, 
millions of our people, who never used and never saw any of the 
foreign products, purchase and use things of the same kind made 
in this country, and pay therefor nearly or quite the same enhanced 
price which the duty adds to the imported articles. Those who buy 
imports pay the duty charged thereon into the public Treasury, but 
the great majority of our citizens, who buy domestic articles of the 
same class, pay a sum at least approximately equal to this duty to the 
home manufacturer. This reference to the operation of our tariff laws 
is not made by way of instruction, but in order that we may be con- 
stantly reminded of the manner in which they impose a burden upon 
those who consume domestic products as well as those who consume 
imported articles, and thus create a tax upon all our people. 

It is not proposed to entirely relieve the country of this taxation. 
It must be extensively continued as the source of the Government's 
income; and in a readjustment of our tariff the mterests of American 
labor engaged in manufacture should be carefully considered, as well 
as the preservation of our manufacturers. It may be called protection 
or by any other name, but relief from the hardships and dangers of 
our present tariff laws should be devised with especial precaution 
against imperiling the existence of our manufacturing mterests. But 
this existence should not mean a condition which, without regard to 
the public welfare or a national exigency, must always insure the 
realization of immense profits instead of moderately profitable returns. 
As the volume and diversity of our national activities increase, new 
recruits are added to those who desire a continuation of the advantages 
which they conceive the present system of tariff taxation directly 
affords them. So stubbornly have all efforts to reform the present 
condition been resisted by those of our fellow-citizens thus engaged 



560 History of the United States. 

that they can hardly complain of the suspicion, entertained to a cer- 
tain extent, that there exists an organized combination all along- the 
line to maintain their advantage. 

We are in the midst of centennial celebrations, and with becoming 
pride we rejoice in American skill and ingenuity, in American energy 
and enterprise, and in the wonderful natural advantages and resources 
developed by a century's national growth. Yet when an attempt is 
made to justify a scheme which permits a tax to be laid upon every 
consumer in the land for the benefit of our manufacturers, quite be- 
yond a reasonable demand for governmental regard, it suits the pur- 
poses of advocacy to call our manufactures infant industries still 
needing the highest and greatest degree of favor and fostering care 
that can be wrung from Federal legislation. 

It is also said that the increase in the price of domestic manufactures 
resulting from the present tariff is necessary in order that higher 
wages may be paid to our workingmen employed in manufactories 
than are paid for what is called the pauper labor of Europe. All will 
acknowledge the force of an argument which involves the welfare 
and liberal compensation of our laboring people. Our labor is honor- 
able in the eyes of every American citizen ; and as it lies at the founda- 
tion of our development and progress, it is entitled, without affectation 
or hypocrisy, to the utmost regard. The standard of our laborers' 
life should not be measured by that of any other country less favored, 
and they are entitled to their full share of all our advantages. 

By the last census it is made to appear that of the 17,392,099 of our 
population engaged in all kinds of industries, 7,670,493 are employed in 
agriculture, 4,074,238 in professional and personal service, 2,934,876 
of whom are domestic servants and laborers, while 1,810,256 are 
employed in trade and transportation, and 3,837,112 are classed as 
employed i.n manufacturing and mining. 

For present purposes, however, the last number given should be 
considerably reduced. Without attempting to enumerate all, it will 
be conceded that there should be deducted from those which it 
includes 375,143 carpenters and joiners, 285,401 milliners, dressmakers, 
and seamstresses, 172,726 blacksmiths, 133,756 tailors and tailoresses, 
102,473 masons, 76,241 butchers, 41,309 bakers, 22,083 plasterers, and 
4,891 engaged in manufacturing agricultural implements, amounting 
in the aggregate to 1,214,023, leaving 2,623,089 persons employed in 
such manufacturing industries as are claimed to be benefited by a 
hijrh tariff. 



Grover Cleveland. 561 

The simple and plain duty which we owe the people is to reduce tax- 
ation to the necessary expenses of an economical operation of the 
Government and to restore to the business of the country the money 
which we hold in the Treasury through the perversion of govern- 
mental powers. These things can and should be done with safety to 
all our industries, without danger to the opportunity for remunerative 
labor which our workingmen need, and with benefit to them and all 
our people by cheapening their means of subsistence and increasing 
tiie measure of their comforts. 



In my fourth annual message, December 3, 1888, I called Congress' 
attention to an interesting and impressive incident. With the expira- 
tion of that session of the Congress the first century of our con- 
stitutional existence as a nation would be completed. 

Our survival for one hundred years was not sufficient to assure us 
that we no longer have dangers to fear in the maintenance, with all 
its promised blessings, of a government founded upon the freedom of 
the people. The time rather admonished us to soberly inquire 
whether in the past we have always closely kept in the course of safety, 
a.nd wdiether we have before us a way plain and clear wdiich leads to 
happiness and perpetuity. 

When the experiment of our Government was undertaken, the 
chart adopted for our guidance was the Constitution. Departure from 
tlie lines there laid down is failure. It is only by a strict adherence 
to the direction they indicate and by restraint within the limitations 
they fix that we can furnish proof to the world of the fitness of the 
American people for self-government. 

In 1888 Persia had established diplomatic representation at this 
capital, and evinced very great interest in the enterprise and achieve- 
ments of our citizens. I was therefore hopeful that beneficial com- 
mercial relations between the two countries may be brought about. 

A comprehensive treaty of amity and commerce with Peru was 
proclaimed on November 7, 1888, and it was expected that under its 
operation mutual prosperity and good understanding will be promoted. 

Proclamation w-as duly made on the 9th day of November, 1887, 
of the conventional extensions of the treaty of June 3, 1875, with 
Hawaii, under which relations of such special and beneficent inter- 
course have been created. 



562 History of the United States. 

The Empire of Brazil, in abolishing the last vestige of slavery 
among Christian nations, called forth the earnest congratulations of 
this Government in expression of the cordial sympathies of our people. 

Preparations for the centennial celebration, on April 30, 1889, of 
the inauguration of George Washington as President of the United 
States, at the city of New York, had been made by a voluntary organi- 
zation of the citizens of that locality, and believing that an opportunity 
should be afforded for the expression of the interest felt throughout 
the country in this event, I recommended in 1889 the fitting and co- 
operative action by Congress on behalf of the people of the United 
States. 

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury exhibited in detail the 
condition of our national finances and the operations of the several 
branches of the Government related to his Department at that time. 

The total ordinary revenues of the Government for the fiscal year 
ended June 30, 1888, amounted to $379,266,074.76, of which 
$219,091,173.63 was received from customs duties and $124,296,871.98 
from internal revenue taxes. 

The total receipts from all sources exceeded those for the fiscal 
year ended June 30, 1887, by $7,862,797.10. 

The ordinary expenditures of the Government for the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1888, were $259,653,958.67, leaving a surplus of 
$119,612,116.09. 

The decrease in these expenditures as compared with the fiscal year 
ended June 30, 1887, was $8,278,221.30, notwithstanding the payment 
of more tlian $5,000,000 for pensions in excess of what was paid for 
that purpose in the latter-mentioned year. 

The revenues of the Government for the year ending June 30, 1889, 
ascertained for the quarter ended September 30, 1888, and estimated 
for the remainder of the time, amount to $377,000,000. and the actual 
and estimated ordinary expenditures for the same year are $273,000,000, 
leaving an estimated surplus of $104,000,000. 

The estimated receipts for the year ending June 30, 1890, are 
$377,000,000, and the estimated ordinary expenditures for the same 
time are $275,767,488.34, showing a surplus of $101,232,511.66. 

The foregoing statements of surplus do not take into account the 
sum necessary to be expended to meet the requirements of the 
sinking fund act, amounting to more than $47,000,000 annually. 

The requirements of the sinking fund act have been met for the 
year ended June 30, 1888, and for the current year also, by the pur- 



Grover Cleveland. 563 

chase of bonds. After complying with this law as positively required, 
and bonds sufficient for that purpose had been bought at a premium, 
it was not deemed prudent to further expend the surplus in such pur- 
chases until the authority to do so should be more explicit. A resolu- 
tion, however, having been passed by both Houses of Congress re- 
moving all doubt as to Executive authority, daily purchases of bonds 
were commenced on the 23d day of April, 1888, and have continued 
until the present time. By this plan bonds of the Government not 
yet due have been purchased up to and including the 30th day of 
November, 1888, amounting to $94,700,400, the premium paid 
thereon amounting to $17,508,613.08. 

The premium added to the principal of these bonds represents an 
investment yielding about 2 per cent, interest for the time they still 
had to run, and the saving to the Government represented by the 
difference between the amount of interest at 2 per cent, upon the sum 
paid for principal and premium and what it would have paid for 
interest at the rate specified in the bonds if they had run to their 
maturity is about $27,165,000. 

At first sight this would seem to be a profitable and sensible trans- 
action on the part of the Government, but, as suggested by the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, the surplus thus expended for the purchase of 
l)onds was money drawn from the people in excess of any actual need 
of the Government and was so expended rather than allow it to re- 
main idle in the Treasury. If this surplus, under the operation of just 
and equitable laws, laad been left in the hands of the people, it would 
have been worth in their business at least 6 per cent, per annum. 
Deducting from the amount of interest upon the principal and 
premium of these bonds for the time they had to run at the rate of 
6 per cent, the saving of 2 per cent, made for the people by the pur- 
chase of such bonds, the loss will appear to be $55,760,000. 

This calculation would seem to demonstrate that if excessive and 
unnecessary taxation is continued and the Government is forced to 
pursue this policy of purchasing its own bonds at the premiums which 
it will be necessary to pay, the loss to the people will be hundreds of 
millions of dollars. 

Since the purchase of bonds was undertaken as mentioned nearly 
all that have been offered were at last accepted. It has been made 
quite apparent that the Government was in danger of being subjected 
to combinations to raise their price, as appears by the instance cited by 
the Secretarv of the offering of bonds of the par value of only $326,000 



564 History of the United States. 

so often that the aggregate of the sums demanded for their purchase 
amounted to more than $19,700,000. 

Notwithstanding the large sums paid out in the purchase of bonds, 
the surphis in the Treasury on the 30th day of November, 1888, was 
^52,234,610.01, after deducting about $20,000,000 just drawn out 
for the payment of pensions. 

At the close of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1887, there had been 
coined under the compulsory silver coinage act $266,988,280 in silver 
dollars, $55,504,310 of which were in the hands of the people. 

On the 30th day of June, 1888, there had been coined $299,708,790; 
and of this $55,829,303 was in circulation in coin, and $200,387,376 
in silver certificates, for the redemption of which silver dollars to that 
amount were held by the Government. 

On the 30th day of November, 1888, $312,570,990 had been coined, 
$60,970,990 of the silver dollars were actually in circulation, and 
$237,418,346 in certificates. 

The Secretary recommends the suspension of the further coinage of 
silver, and in such recommendation I earnestly concur. 

The report for 1888 of the Secretary of the Navy demonstrated very 
intelligent management in that important Department, and disclosed 
the most satisfactory progress in the work of reconstructing the Navy 
made during that year. Of the ships in course of construction five, 
viz.: the " Qiarleston," "Baltimore," " Yorktown," "Vesuvius," and 
the " Petrel," had in that time been launched and were rapidly ap- 
proaching completion; and in addition to the above, the " Phila- 
delphia," the " San Francisco," the " Newark," the " Bennington," the 
" Concord," and the " Herreshoff " torpedo boat were all under con- 
tract for delivery to the Department during the next year. 

One of the last acts of my first Administration, on January 19, 1889, 
related to the Samoan question, when I sent the following message to 
Congress: 

On the 2d day of April, 1888, I transmitted to the House of Repre- 
sentatives, in response to a resolution passed by that body, a report 
from the Secretary of State relating to the condition of alTairs in the 
Samoan Islands, together with numerous letters, dispatches, and docu- 
ments connected with the subject, which gave a history of all dis- 
orders in that locality up to that date. 

On the 2 1 St day of December, 1888, this information was supple- 
mented by the transmission to the Congress of such further corre- 
spondence and documents as extended this history to that tune. 



Grover Cleveland, 565 

I submitted a report from the Secretary of State, with later cor- 
respondence and dispatches exhibiting- the progress of the disturb- 
ances in Samoa up to that time. 

The information thus laid before the Congress is of much import- 
ance, since it has relation to the preservation of American interests 
and the protection of American citizens and their property in a distant 
locality and under an unstable and unsatisfactory government, and 
is as follows: 

In the midst of the disturbances which have arisen at Samoa, such 
powers have been exercised as seemed to be within Executive control 
under our Constitution and laws, and which appear to accord with our 
national policy and traditions, to restore tranquillity and secure the 
safety of our citizens. 

Through negotiation and agreement with Great Britain and Ger- 
many, which, wath our own Government, constitute the treaty powers 
interested in Samoan peace and quiet, the attempt has been made to 
define more clearly the part which these powers should assume in the 
government of that country, while at the same time its autonomy has 
been insisted upon. 

These negotiations were at one time interrupted by such action on 
the part of the German Government as appeared to be inconsistent 
with their further continuance. 

Germany, however, still asserts, as from the first she has done, that 
she has no desire or intention to overturn the native Samoan Govern- 
ment or to ignore our treaty rights, and she still invites our Govern- 
ment to join her in restoring peace and quiet. But thus far her 
propositions on this subject seem to lead to such a preponderance of 
German power in Samoa as was never contemplated by us and is in- 
consistent with every prior agreement or understanding, while her 
recent conduct as between native warring factions gives rise to the 
suspicion that she is not content with a neutral position. 

Acting within the restraints which our Constitution and laws have 
placed upon Executive power, I have insisted that the autonomy and 
independence of Samoa should be scrupulously preserved according 
to the treaties made with Samoa by the powers named and their agree- 
ments and understanding with each other. I have protested against 
every act apparently tending in an opposite direction, and during the 
existence of internal disturbance one or more vessels of war have been 
kept in Samoan waters to protect American citizens and property. 



566 History of the United States. 

These things will abundantly appear from the correspondence and 
papers which have been submitted to the Congress. 

A recent collision between the forces from a German man-of-war 
stationed in Samoan waters and a body of natives rendered the situ- 
ation so delicate and critical that the warship " Trenton," under the 
immediate command of Admiral Kimberly, was ordered to join the 
" Nipsic," already at Samoa, for the better protection of the persons 
and property of our citizens, and in furtherance of efforts to restore 
order and safety. 



SECOND ADMINISTRATION, 1893-1897. 

In my second Inaugural address, March 4, 1893, I expressed how 
deeply moved I was by the expression of confidence and personal 
attachment which again called me to their service. I was sure my 
gratitude could make no better return than the pledge I then gave 
before God, of unreserved and complete devotion to the interests and 
welfare of those who had so honored me. 

In my annual message of December 4, 1893, I called attention to the 
fact that on April 18, 1890, the International American Conference at 
Washington by resolution expressed the wish that all controversies 
between the republics of America and the nations of Europe might be 
settled by arbitration, and recommended that the government of each 
nation represented in that conference should communicate this wish 
to all friendly powers. A favorable response had been received from 
Great Britain in the shape of a resolution adopted by Parliament July 
16, 1893, cordially sympathizing with the purpose in view and ex- 
pressing the hope that Her Majesty's Government will lend ready co- 
operation to the Government of the United States upon the basis of 
the concurrent resolution above quoted. 

It afforded me signal pleasure to lay this parliamentary resolution 
before the Congress and to express my sincere gratification that the 
sentiment of two great and kindred nations was thus authoritatively 
manifested in favor of the rational and peaceable settlement of inter- 
national quarrels by honorable resort to arbitration. 

Since the passage of the act of March 3, 1893, authorizing the Presi- 
dent to raise the grade of our envoys to correspond with the rank in 
which foreign countries accredit their agents here. Great Britain, 



Grover Cleveland. 567 

France, Italy, and Germany bad conferred upon their representatives 
at this capital the title of ambassador, and I responded by accrediting 
the agents of the United States in those countries with the same title. 
A like elevation of mission was announced by Russia. This step 
fittingly comports with the position the United States holds in the 
family of nations. 

One hundred and nineteen national banks were organized during 
the year ending October 31, 1893, with a capital of $11,230,000. 
Forty-six went into voluntary liquidation and 158 suspended. Sixty - 
five of the suspended banks were insolvent, 86 resumed business, and 
7 remain in the hands of the bank examiners, with prospects of speedy 
resumption. Of the new banks organized, 44 were located in the 
Eastern States, 41 west of the Mississsippi River, and 34 in the Central 
and Southern States. The total number of national banks in existence 
on October 31, 1893, was 3,796, having an aggregate capital of 
$695,558,120. The net increase in the circulation of these banks 
during the year was $36,886,972. 

The recent repeal of the provision of law requiring the purchase of 
silver bullion by the Government as a feature of our monetary scheme 
had made an entire change in the complexion of our currency afifairs. 
I did not doubt that the ultimate result of this action will be most 
salutary and far-reaching. 

A great injustice was done to Secretary of the Treasury Carlisle in 
the currency afTairs of August, 1893, by saying he precipitated a panic 
in announcing the Government's position on the silver question. But 
he simply told the plain truth. 

When the Chicago railroad strike occurred in July, 1894, Federal 
troops were sent to Chicago in strict accordance with the Constitution 
and laws of the United States, upon the demand of the Post-Office 
Department that the obstruction of the mails should be removed, and 
upon the representations of the judicial officers of the United States 
that process of the Federal courts could not be executed through the 
ordinary means, and upon abundant proof that conspiracies existed 
against commerce between the States. 

To meet these conditions, which were clearly within the province of 
Federal authority, the presence of Federal troops in the city of 
Chicago was deemed not only proper but necessary, and there was 
no intention of thereby interfering with the plain duty of the local 
authorities to preserve the peace of the city. 



568 History of the United States. 

Upon receiving a protest from Governor John P. Altgeld of Illinois, 
against these military proceedings, I sent him this message: 

Washington, D. C, July 6, 1894. 

Executive Mansion, 

While I am still persuaded that I have neither Lranscended my authority nor 
duty in the emergency that confronts us, it seems to me that in this hour of 
danger and public distress discussion may well give way to active efTort on the 
part of all in authority to restore obedience to law and to protect life and 
property. 

Previous to the admission of Utah as a State, I appointed as 
territorial governor Caleb W. West of Kentucky. I gave him charge 
of bringing the Territory into a condition to make it fit for statehood. 
My directions to him were: " I want those Mormons prosecuted in 
the proper manner, but not persecuted. I want individual justice to be 
done." 

The Congress of the United States passed an act, which was ap- 
proved on the i6th day of July, 1894, entitled "An act to enable thi 
people of Utah to form a constitution and State government and to 
be admitted into the Union On an equal footing with the original 
States," which act provided for the election of delegates to a con- 
stitutional convention to meet at the seat of government of the Terri- 
tory of Utah on the first Monday in March, 1895, for the purpose of 
declaring the adoption of the Constitution of the United States by the 
people of the proposed State and forming a constitution and State 
government for such State. Delegates were accordingly elected, who 
met, organized, and declared on behalf of the people of said proposed 
State their adoption of the Constitution of the United States, all as 
provided in said act. The convention, so organized, did, by ordinance 
irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of 
said State, as required by said act, provide that perfect toleration of 
religious sentiment shall be secured and that no inhabitant of said 
State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his 
or her mode of religious worship, but that polygamous or plural mar- 
riages are forever prohibited, and did also by said ordinance make the 
other various stipulations recited in section 3 of said act. The con- 
vention thereupon formed a constitution and State government for 



G ROVER Cleveland. 569 

said proposed State, which constitution, inckiding said ordinance, was 
duly submitted to the people thereof at an election held on the Tues- 
day next after the first Monday of November, 1895, as directed by 
said act. The return of said election had been made and canvassed 
and the result thereof certified to me, together with a statement of the 
votes cast and a copy of said constitution and ordinance, all as pro- 
vided in said act, showing that a majority of the votes lawfully cast at 
such election was for the ratification and adoption of said constitution 
and ordinance. The constitution and government of said proposed 
State were republican in form, said constitution was not repugnant to 
the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and all the provisions of said act have been complied with 
in the formation of said constitution and government: 

I, as President of the United States of America, January 4, 1896, in 
accordance with the act of Congress aforesaid and by authority thereof, 
announced the result of said election to be as so certified and did 
declare and proclaim that the terms and conditions prescribed by the 
Congress of the United States entitling the State of Utah to admis- 
sion into the Union had been duly complied with and that the creation 
of said State and its admission into the Union on an equal footing 
with the original States was then accomplished. 

In my annual message of December 3, 1894, I stated that on the ist 
day of November, 1894, the total stock of money of all kinds in the 
country was $2,240,773,888, as against $2,204,651,000 on the 1st day 
of November, 1893, and the money of all kinds in circulation, or not 
included in the Treasury holdings, was $1,672,093,422, or $24.27 per 
capita upon an estimated population of 68,887,000. At the same date 
there was held in the Treasury gold bullion amounting to 
$44,615,177.55, and silver bullion which was purchased at a cost of 
$127,772,988. The purchase of silver bullion under the act of July 
14, 1890, ceased on the ist day of November, 1893, and up to that time 
there had been purchased during the fiscal year 11,917,658.78 fine 
ounces, at a cost of $8,715,521.32, an average cost of $0.7313 per fine 
ounce. The total amount of silver purchased from the time that law 
took efifect until the repeal of its purchasing clause, on the date last 
mentioned, was 168,674,682.53 fine ounces, which cost $155,931,002.25, 
the average price per fine ounce being $0.9244. 

The total amount of standard silver dollars coined at the mints of 
the United States since the passage of the act of February 28, 1878, is 
$421,776,408, of which $378,166,793 were coined under the provisions 



570 History of the United States. 

of that act, $38,531,143 under the provisions of the act of July 14, 1890, 
and $5,078,472 under the act providing for the coinage of trade-dollar 
bullion. 

The total coinage of all metals at our mints during the last fiscal 
year consisted of 63,485,220 pieces, valued at $106,216,730.06, of which 
there were $99,474,912.50 in gold coined, $758 in standard silver dol- 
lars, $6,024,140.30 in subsidiary silver coin, and $716,919.26 in minor 
coin. 

On May 28, 1895, it became my sad duty to announce that Walter 
Q. Gresham, Secretary of State of the United States, was dead. 

In making this distressing announcement to my fellow-country- 
men, I spoke from the depths of a personal affliction to remind them 
that they too had lost a pure and able public servant, a wise and 
patriotic guardian of all their rights and interests, a manly and loyal 
American, and a generous and lovable man. 

I called attention to the pending boundary controversy, December 
17, 1895, between Great Britain and the Republic of Venezuela and 
recited the substance of a representation made by this Government to 
Her Britannic Majesty's Government suggesting reasons why such 
dispute should be submitted to arbitration for settlement and inquir- 
ing whether it would be so submitted. 

The answer of the British Government was received later. 

Such reply was embodied in two communications. One of these 
communications is devoted exclusively to observations upon the Mon- 
roe doctrine, and claims that in this instance a new and strange ex- 
tension and development of this doctrine is insisted on by the United 
States; that the reasons justifying an appeal to the doctrine enunciated 
by President Monroe are generally inapplicable " to the state of things 
in which we live at the present day," and especially inapplicable to a 
controversy involving the boundary line between Great Britain and 
Venezuela. 

- Without attempting extended argument in reply to these positions, 
it was not amiss to suggest that the doctrine upon which we stood 
was strong and sound, because its enforcement was important to our 
peace and safety as a nation and essential to the integrity of our free 
institutions and the tranquil maintenance of our distinctive form of 
government. It was intended to apply to every stage of our national 
life and can not become obsolete while our Republic endures. If the 
balance of power is justly a cause for jealous anxiety among the Gov- 
ernments of the Old World and a subject for our absolute nonintcr- 



Grover Cleveland. 571 

ference, none the less is an observance of the Monroe doctrine of 
vital concern to our people and their Government. 

Assuming that we may properly insist upon this doctrine without 
regard to " the state of things in which we live " or any changed con- 
ditions here or elsewhere, it was not apparent why its application 
should not be invoked in the Venezuelan controversy. 

If a European power by an extension of its boundaries took pos- 
session of the territory of one of our neighboring Republics against 
its will and in derogation of its rights, it was difficult to see why to 
that extent such European power did not thereby attempt to extend 
its system of government to that portion of this continent thus taken. 
This was the precise action which President Monroe declared to be 
" dangerous to our peace and safety," and it could make no difference 
whether the European system be extended by an advance of frontier or 
otherwise. 

It was also suggested in the British reply that we should not seek 
to apply the Monroe doctrine to the pending dispute because it did 
not embody any principle of international law which " is founded on 
the general consent of nations," and that " no statesman, however emi- 
nent, and no nation, however powerful, are competent to insert into 
the code of international law a novel principle which was never recog- 
nized before and which has not since been accepted by the government 
of any other country." 

Practically the principle for which we contended had peculiar, if not 
exclusive, relation to the United States. It may not have been ad- 
mitted in so many words to the code of international law, but since in 
international councils every nation is entitled to the rights belonging 
to it, if the enforcement of the Monroe doctrine was something we 
might justly claim, it has its place in the code of international law as 
certainly and as securely as if it were specifically mentioned ; and when 
the United States is a suitor before the high tribunal that administers 
international law the question to be determined is whether or not we 
present claims which the justice of that code of law can find to be right 
and valid. 

The Monroe doctrine finds its recognition in those principles of 
international law which are based upon the theory that every nation 
shall have its rights protected and its just claims enforced. 

Of course this Government was entirely confident that under the 
sanction of this doctrine we had clear rights and undoubted claims. 
Nor was this ignored in the British reply. The prime minister, while 



572 History of the United States. 

not admitting- that the Monroe doctrine was appHcable to present con- 
ditions, stated: 

In declaring that the United States would resist any such enterprise if it was 
contemplated, President Monroe adopted a policy which received the entire 
sympathy of the English Government of that date. 

He further declared: 

Though the language of President Monroe is directed to the attainment of 
objects which most Englishmen would agree to be salutary, it is impossible to 
admit that they have been inscribed by any adequate authority in the code of 
international law. 

Again he said: 

They [Her Majesty's Government] fully concur with the view which Presi- 
dent Monroe apparently entertained, that any disturbance of the existing 
territorial distribution in that hemisphere by any such acquisitions on the part 
of any European State wou!d be a highly inexpedient change. 

In the belief that the doctrine for which we contended was clear 
and definite, that it was founded upon substantial considerations and 
involved our safety and welfare, that it was fully applicable to our 
present conditions and to the state of the world's progress, and that 
it was directly related to the pending controversy, and without any 
conviction as to the final merits of the dispute, but anxiotts to learn 
in a satisfactory and conclusive manner whether Great Britain sought 
under a claim of boundary to extend her possessions on this continent 
without right, or whether she merely sought possession of territory 
fairly included within her lines of ownership, this Government pro- 
posed to the Government of Great Britain a resort to arbitration as 
the proper means of settling the question, to the end that a vexatious 
boundary dispute between the two contestants might be determined 
and our exact standing and relation in respect to the controversy 
might be made clear. 

It will be seen from the correspondence stibmitted that this propo- 
sition had been declined by the British Government upon grounds 
which in the circumstances seem to me to be far from satisfactory. It 
is deeply disappointing that such an appeal, actuated by the most 



Grover Cleveland. 575 

friendly feelings toward both nations directly concerned, addressed 
to the sense of justice and to the magnanimity of one of the great 
powers of the world, and touching its relations to one comparatively 
weak and small, should have produced no better results. 

The course to be pursued by this Government in view of the present 
condition does not appear to admit of serious doubt. Having labored 
faithfully for many years to induce Great Britain to submit this dis- 
pute to impartial arbitration, and having been now finally apprised 
of her refusal to do so, nothing remained but to accept the situation, 
to recognize its plain requirements, and deal with it accordingly. 
Great Britain's present proposition had never thus far been regarded 
as admissible by Venezuela, though any adjustment of the boundary 
which that country might deem for her advantage and might enter 
into of her own free will could not of course be objected to by the 
United States. 

Assuming, however, that the attitude of Venezuela would remain 
unchanged, the dispute had reached such a stage as to make it in- 
cumbent upon the United States to take measures to determine with 
sufficient certainty for its justification what was the true divisional line 
between the Republic of Venezuela and British Guiana. 

In order that such an examination of the claims of those nations 
should be prosecuted in a thorough and satisfactory manner, I sug- 
gested that the Congress make an adequate appropriation for the ex- 
penses of a commission, to be appointed by the Executive, who should 
make the necessary investigation and report upon the matter with the 
least possible delay. 

When such report was made and accepted, I stated that it would, in 
my opinion, be the duty of the United States to resist by every means 
in its power, as a willful aggression upon its rights and interests, the 
appropriation by Great Britain of any lands or the exercise of gov- 
ernmental jurisdiction over any territory which after investigation 
we had determined of right belonged to Venezuela. 

In making these recommendations I was fully alive to the respon- 
sibility incurred and keenly realized all the consequences that might 
follow. 

I was, nevertheless, firm in my conviction that while it was a 
grievous thing to contemplate the two great Englisn-speaking peo- 
ples of the world as being otherwise than friendly competitors in the 
onward march of civilization and strenuous and worthy rivals in all 
the arts of peace, there was no calamity which a great nation could 



576 History of the United States, 

invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong 
and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and 
honor, beneath which are shielded and defended a people's safety and 
greatness. 

In my annual message of December 7, 1896, I announced that the 
Venezuelan boundary question had ceased to be a matter of difference 
between Great Britain and the United States, their respective Gov- 
ernments having agreed upon the substantial provisions of a treaty 
between Great Britain and Venezuela submitting the whole contro- 
versy to arbitration. The provisions of the treaty were so eminently 
just and fair that the assent of Venezuela thereto was confidently an- 
ticipated. 

Negotiations for a treaty of general arbitration for all differences be- 
tween Great Britain and the United States were far advanced and 
promised to reach a successful consummation. 

The Secretary of the Treasury reported that during the fiscal year 
ended June 30, 1896, the receipts of the Government from all sources 
amounted to $409,475,408.78. During the same period its expendi- 
tures were $434,678,654.48, the excess of expenditures over receipts 
thus amounting to $25,203,245.70. The ordinary expenditures dur- 
ing the year were $4,015,852.21 less than during the preceding fiscal 
year. Of the receipts mentioned there was derived from customs the 
sum of $160,021,751.67 and from internal revenue $146,830,615.66. 
The receipts from customs show an increase of $7,863,134.22 over 
those from the same source for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1895, 
and the receipts from internal revenue an increase of $3,584,537.91. 

The value of our imported dutiable merchandise during the last fiscal 
year was $369,757,470, and the value of free goods imported 
$409,967,470, being an increase of $6,523,675 in the value of dutiable 
goods and $41,231,034 in the value of free goods over the preceding 
year. Our exports of merchandise, foreign and domestic, amounted 
in value to $882,606,938, being an increase over the preceding year of 
$75,068,773. The average ad valorem duty paid on dutiable goods 
imported during the year was 39.94 per cent, and on free and dutiable 
goods taken together 20.55 per cent. 

The cost of collecting our internal revenue was 2.78 per cent., as 
against 2.81 per cent, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895. The 
total production of distilled spirits, exclusive of fruit brandies, was 
86,588,703 taxable gallons, being an increase of 6,639,108 gallons over 
the preceding year. There was also an increase of 1,443,676 gallons 



Grover Cleveland. 577 

of spirits produced from fruit as compared with the preceding year. 
The number of barrels of beer produced was 35,859,250, as against 
33.589784 produced in the preceding fiscal year, being an increase of 
2,269,466 barrels. 

The total amount of gold exported during the last fiscal year was 
$112,409,947 and of silver $60,541,670, being an increase of $45,941,466 
of gold and $13,246,384 of silver over the exportations of the preceding 
fiscal year. The imports of gold were $33,525,065 and of silver 
$28,777,186, being $2,859,695 less of gold and $8,566,007 more of 
silver than during the preceding year. 

The total stock of metallic money in the United States at the close 
of the last fiscal year, ended on the 30th day of June, 1896, was 
$1,228,326,035, of which $599,597,964 was in gold and $628,728,071 
in silver. 

On the 1st day of November, 1896, the total stock of money of all 
kinds in the country was $2,285,410,590, and the amount in circulation, 
not including that in the Treasury holdings, was $1,627,055,641, be- 
ing $22.63 /"^^ capita upon an estimated population of 71,902,000. 

The production of the precious metals in the United States during 
the calendar year 1895 is estimated to have been 2,254,760 fine ounces 
of gold, of the value of $46,610,000, and 55,727,000 fine ounces of 
silver, of the commercial value of $36,445,000 and the coinage value of 
$72,051,000. The estimated production of these metals throughout 
the world during the same period was 9,688,821 fine ounces of gold, 
amounting to $200,285,700 in value, and 169,189,249 fine ounces of sil- 
ver, of the commercial value of $110,654,000 and of the coinage value 
of $218,738,100 according to our ratio. 

The total coinage at the mints of the United States during the fiscal 
year ended June 30, 1896, amounted to $71,188,468.52, of which 
$58,878,490 was in gold coins and $12,309,978.52 in standard silver 
dollars, subsidiary coins, and minor coins. 

In one of my last state papers in 1897, I pointed out at that time 
that in Cuba, when the inability of Spain to deal successfully with the 
insurrection had become manifest and it was demonstrated that her 
sovereignty was extinct in Cuba for all purposes of its rightful exist- 
ence, and when a hopeless struggle for its re-establishment has de- 
generated into a strife which means nothing more than the useless 
sacrifice of human life and the utter destruction of the verv subject- 
matter of the conflict, a situation will be presented in which our obliga- 
tions to the sovereignty of Spain will be superseded by higher obliga- 



578 History of the United States. 

tions, which we can hardly hesitate to recognize and discharge. 
Deferring the choice of ways and methods until the time for action ar- 
rived, we should make them depend upon the precise conditions then 
existing; and they should not be determined upon without giving care- 
ful heed to every consideration involving our honor and interest or 
the international duty we owe to Spain. Until we faced the contin- 
gencies suggested or the situation was by other incidents imperatively 
changed we should continue in the line of conduct previously pursued, 
thus in all circumstances exhibiting our obedience to the requirements 
of public law and our regard for the duty enjoined upon us by the 
position we occupy in the family of nations. 

A contemplation of emergencies that may arise should plainly lead 
us to avoid their creation, either through a careless disregard of 
present duty or even an vmdue stimulation and ill-timed expression 
of feeling. But I deemed it not amiss to remind the Congress that 
a time might arrive when a correct policy for our interests, as well 
as a regard for the interests of other nations and their citizens, joined 
by considerations of humanity and a desire to see a rich and fertile 
country intimately related to us saved from complete devastation, 
would constrain our Government to such action as would subserve the 
interests thus involved and at the same time promise to Cuba and its 
inhabitants an opportunity to enjoy the blessings of peace. 

GROVER CLEVELAND. 

Princeton, New Jersey, May 27, 1899. 



LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

GROVER CLEVELAND was born March 18, 1837. at Caldwell, 
Nev/ Jersey. He was the son of Rev. Richard Falley Cleve- 
land, who was of English descent, and Ann Neal, daughter of 
a Baltimore merchant, of Irish birth. When he was four years old, his 
parents removed to Fayetteville, near Syracuse, N.Y., where he received 
a common and academic schooling. He afterward attended the acad- 
emy in Clinton, N. Y. In his seventeenth year he became a clerk 
and an assistant teacher in the New York Institution for the Blind, in 
New York City, in which his elder brother, William, a Presbyterian 
clergyman, was then a teacher. In 1855 h^ assisted his Uncle Lewis 
F. Allen in the compilation of a volume of the American Herd Book. 



Grover Cleveland. 579 

Afterward, while studying law, he assisted in the preparation of sev- 
eral other volumes of this work, and the preface to the fifth volume, 
1 86 1, acknowledges his services. He was admitted to the bar in 1859, 
and was appointed assistant district attorney of Erie County, Jan- 
uary I, 1863, and held the office for three years. In 1865, he was 
Democratic candidate for district attorney, but was defeated by the 
Republican candidate, his friend, Lyman K. Bass. He then became 
the law partner of Isaac V. Vanderpool, and in 1869 a member of the 
firm of Lanning, Cleveland & Folsom. He successfully practiced 
until 1870, when he was elected sherifif of Erie County. At the ex- 
piration of this office he formed a law partnership with Lyman K. 
Bass, the firm being Bass, Cleveland & Bissell, and after the retire- 
ment of Mr. Bass, Cleveland & Bissell. In 1881, he was elected mayor 
of Buffalo by the Democratic vote. He entered upon office January 
I, 1882, and soon became known as the " Veto Mayor," using that 
prerogative fearlessly in checking illegal and extravagant expendi- 
tures. He was elected Governor of New York, November, 1882. On 
July II, 1884, he was nominated Democratic candidate for President 
and elected November 4, 1884. He was renominated for the Presi- 
dency by the Democrats June 6, 1888, but was defeated by Benjamin 
Harrison, the Republican candidate. On March 4, 1889, he returned 
to New York City, where he resumed the practice of law. He was 
again nominated by the Democratic convention in Chicago, June 
21, 1892, and elected November 4th. He retired from office, March 4, 
1897, and has since resided at Princeton, New Jersey. President 
Cleveland was married in the White House, June 2, 1886, to Miss 
Frances Folsom, daughter of his deceased law partner, Oscar Folsom, 
of Buffalo. Mrs. Cleveland was the first wife of a President married 
in the White House, and the first to give birth to a child there, their 
second daughter, Esther, having been born in the Executive ]\Iansion 
in 1893. 



58o 



History of the United States. 




HOME OF EX-PRESiDENT BENJAMIN HARRISON, AT INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. 



CHAPTER XXIII 



BENJAMIN HARRISON AS A STATESMAN. 



By Horace A. Taylor, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. 



T T is easy to write of a friend. The reader willingly makes generous al- 
lowance for the partialities of personal friendship. But to write discrimi- 
natingly of a living public man, correctly estimating and fairly presenting his 
character, attainments and achievements, is a delicate and difficult task. 

Somebody has well said that there is nothing more inspiring than the story 
of a triumphant life. Men never tire of it and it can not be too often told. 
There are grades in greatness. Some men are born great; upon their shoulders 
God has dropped the mantle of genius, giving them moral worth and intel- 
lectual power, and unfolding to their keen conceptions the wonderful mysteries 
of life. There are other men less richly endowed by nature's partial hands, who 
by will and work, animated and guided by noble purposes and lofty virtues, 



Benjamin Harrison. 581 

have climbed to the highest peaks of power and fame, and calmly trod the dizzy 
heights, admired and honored by all the world. 

Benjamin Harrison is a self-made and a well-made man. Though coming 
from a distinguished ancestry, he was in youth poor and comparatively ob- 
scure. Yet by the power of his intellect and the nobility of his character, he 
rose to the highest rank among the rulers of the world, the Presidency of the 
United States of America. 

As a man and citizen Benjamin Harrison presents a model of our best man- 
hood and citizenship — industrious, frugal, sincere and unpretending. As a 
public official he has been able, painstaking and courageous. Few men have 
had a life more remarkable or attained dignity and honor more striking. He 
has won his illustrious way by his great abilities, his splendid accomplish- 
ments and the heroic virtue and manliness of his character. The higher he 
rose, the more strikingly were displayed his remarkable abilities and sterling 
virtues. He put brains and conscience into all his work, and the more 
prodigious the tasks that confronted him, the more brilliancy and bravery he 
displayed in their accomplishment. It is a long road from the office of a 
country lawyer to the White House. It is full of struggles and beset with temp- 
tations. It takes keen eyes, steady nerves and fearless feet to safely find the 
way. Benjamin Harrison trod this dangerous road in hope, honor and 
bravery. He rarely faltered or stumbled. He moved upward with the sturdy 
tread of conscious strength and honesty. He made politics statesmanship, and 
showed that the successful office-seeker may be the dignified and christian 
gentleman. 

It may be safely said that no man who ever occupied the Presidential chair 
was more familiar with all the details of government than was President Har- 
rison. He knew the functions and was informed as to the duties of every 
department and bureau. He could have taken any cabinet portfolio or any 
bureau or commissionership and discharged the duties of the positions without 
hesitation. His accurate knowledge as to departmental matters was a constant 
surprise to those who had occasion to consult him with reference to any 
branch of the public service. He not only knew all about the business of the 
Government, but he insisted that it be transacted with intelligence and fidelity. 
He had little toleration for carelessness or incapacity in public officials and 
employes. He conscientiously believed in the motto that, " public office is a 
public trust." He often in private and public utterances emphasized the fact 
that stronger and better men were needed in the public service. He believed 
that in the affairs of government, as in private business, that the rule of the 
survival of the fittest should hold absolute and inexorable sway. He was 
eminently practical in directing the administration of public affairs. He 



582 History of the United States. 

realized that facts and not theories must be the moving forces in government — 
that in the logic of events there is the highest wisdom. 

Benjamin Harrison was not only able, intelligent and practical in the dis- 
charge of his duties as a local and State official, an United States Senator and 
President, but was thoroughly conscientious and always showed the courage of 
his convictions. He never hesitated to say or do what he thought ought to be 
said or done. He is a deeply religious man and believes that religion is for 
everyday use in all the duties of life. In his private life and in his public acts 
and utterances he exhibited the virtues of the christian as conspicuously as he 
displayed those of the statesman and patriot. 

As an example of his sense of duty and fearlessness in the expression of 
opinions, no matter how distasteful they might be to his hearers, I call atten- 
tion to some of his utterances while making a trip to California during his 
Presidential term. He was first given a reception at Atlanta. The people came 
out in force to see what a Republican President looked like, and to hear what 
he had to say. He might have made a speech altogether pleasing to them — 
no living American can surpas?; him in speech-making — but he felt it his duty 
to his audience, mostly ex-Confederates, to exhort them to loyalty to the 
Government, and so he told them that the first and highest duty of citizenship 
was to respect and obey the Constitution and the laws. He was at Salt Lake, 
and for the first time the Mormons raised the American fiag over their new 
temple, and turned out in great numbers to greet the President. Instead of 
confining his speech to matters pleasant for them to hear, he felt it his duty to 
rebuke the revolting sin of polygamy, and so he told them that the foundation 
of the Government was the home, and that there could be no honest or happy 
home with more than one wife and mother in it. He was at Denver on 
Sunday, and a reception was gotten up for him, although it was feared that he 
would decline to attend. He did not decline, but attended and devoted a con- 
siderable part of his speech to rebuking violations of the Sabbath and exhorting 
his audience to a better observance of it. Only a great man and a good man 
has the moral courage exhibited by President Harrison upon the occasions 
referred to. 

In all his speeches and state papers President Harrison showed the broades-t 
statesmanship, the most fervent patriotism and the most sincere Christianity. 
He is a great orator, though he lacks distinguished presence and the mag- 
netism of physique, his grasp of thought is so comprehensive and his command 
of language so masterful, that he fixes attention and compels conviction. No 
time is so inopportune, no subject so profound as to embarrass or bewilder 
him. His resources of information and expression are truly wonderful. No 
matter what the occasion or the audience he always says the right thing in 
the right way. 



Benjamin Harrison. 583 

In his official intercourse Mr. Harrison was always courteous, but dignified 
and decided. In personal relations he appears somewhat cool and reserved, 
but his friends know that although there may be an apparent lack of cordiality, 
beneath is a warm heart that responds to all that is good and true. 

The people of the United States honor and respect Benjamin Harrison. They 
believe in him. They admire his great talents and sterling virtues. They 
know he is honest, wise and brave. His Administration will go into history as 
one of the wisest and best that the country has ever enjoyed. 

Benjamin Harrison as a citizen, a soldier and the Nation's Highest Official, 
has filled the measure of his duty full. American history can furnish few 
parallels to his useful and exalted record. As has been well said of another 
illustrious American — the immortal Lincoln: " None but himself can be his 
parallel." 




tli^C^ / 



-i^/o-^ 



584 History of the United States. 



ADMINISTRATION OF i889--i893. 



By Benjamin Harrison. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1889. 

MY promise is spoken; yours is unspoken, but not the less real 
and solemn. The people of every State have here their rep- 
resentatives. Surely I do not misinterpret the spirit of the 
occasion when I assume that the whole body of the people covenant 
with me and with each other to-day to support and defend the Con- 
stitution and the Union of the States, to yield willing obedience to all 
the laws and each to every other citizen his equal civil and political 
rights. Entering thus solemnly into covenant with each other, we 
may reverently invoke and confidently expect the favor and help of 
Almighty God — that He will give to me wisdom, strength, and 
fidelity, and to our people a spirit of fraternity and a love of righteous- 
ness and peace. 

This occasion derives peculiar interest from the fact that the Presi- 
dential term which begins this day is the twenty-sixth under our Con- 
stitution. The first inauguration of President Washington took place 
in New York, where Congress was then sitting, on the 30th day of 
April, 1789, having been deferred by reason of delays attending the 
organization of the Congress and the canvass of the electoral vote. 
Our people have already worthily observed the centennials of the 
Declaration of Independence, the battle of Yorktown, and of the adop- 
tion of the Constitution, and will shortly celebrate in New York the 
institution of the second great department of our constitutional scheme 
of government. When the centennial of the institution of the judicial 
department, by the organization of the Supreme Court, shall have 
been suitably observed, as I trust it will be, our nation will have fully 
entered its second century. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 3, 1889. 

It is a matter of high significance and no less of congratulation that 
the first year of the second century of our constitutional existence 
finds as honored guests within our borders the representatives of all 



Benjamin Harrison. 585 

the independent States of North and South America met together in 
earnest conference touching the best methods of perpetuating and ex- 
panding the relations of mutual interest and friendliness existing 
among them. That the opportunity thus afforded for promoting 
closer international relations and the increased prosperity of the States 
represented will be used for the mutual good of all I can not permit 
myself to doubt. Our people will await with interest and confidence 
the results to flow from so auspicious a meeting of allied and in large 
part identical interests. 

The recommendations of this International Conference of enlight- 
ened statesmen will doubtless have the considerate attention of Con- 
gress and its co-operation in the removal of unnecessary barriers to 
beneficial intercourse between the nations of America. But while 
the commercial results which it is hoped will follow this conference 
are worthy of pursuit and of the great interests they have excited, it is 
believed that the crowning benefit will be found in the better securities 
which may be devised for the maintenance of peace among all Ameri- 
can nations and the settlement of all contentions by methods that a 
Christian civilization can approve. While viewing with interest our 
national resources and products, the delegates will, I am sure, find a 
higher satisfaction in the evidences of unselfish friendship which every- 
where attend their intercourse with our people. 

Another International Conference having great possibilities for good 
I'as lately assembled and is now in session in this capital. An invi- 
tation was extended by the Government, under the act of Congress 
Of July 9, 1888, to all maritime nations to send delegates to confer 
touching the revision and amendment of the rules and regulations 
governing vessels at sea and to adopt a uniform system of marine 
signals. The response to this invitation has been very general and 
very cordial. Delegates from twenty-six nations are present in the 
conference, and they have entered upon their useful work with great 
zeal and with an evident appreciation of its importance. So far as 
the agreement to be reached may require legislation to give it efifect, 
the co-operation of Congress is confidently relied upon. 

It is an interesting, if not, indeed, an unprecedented, fact that the 
two international conferences have brought together here the ac- 
credited representatives of thirty-three nations. 

Bolivia, Ecuador, and Honduras are now represented by resident 
envoys of the plenipotentiary grade. All the States of the American 
system now maintain diplomatic representation at this capital. 



586 History of the United States. 

In this connection it may be noted that aU the nations of the West- 
ern Hemisphere, with one exception, sent to Washington envoys ex- 
traordinary and ministers plenipotentiary, being the highest grade 
accredited to this (iovernment. The United States, on the contrary, 
sends envoys of lower grades to some of our sister Republics. Our 
representative in Paraguay and Uruguay is a minister resident, while 
to Bolivia we send a minister resident and consul-general. In view 
of the importance of our relations with the States of the American 
svstem, our diplomatic agents in those countries should be of the uni- 
rorm rank of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary Cer- 
tain missions were so elevated by the last Congress with happy effect, 
and I recommend the completion of the reform thus begun, with the 
inclusion also of Hawaii and Hayti, in view of their relations to the 
American system of states. 

During the fiscal year there was applied to the purchase of bonds, 
in addition to those for the sinking fund, $90,456,172.35, and during 
the first quarter of the current year the sum of $37,838,937.77, all of 
which were credited to the sinking fund. The revenues for the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1891, are estimated by the Treasury Department 
at $385,000,000, and the expenditures for the same period, including 
the sinking fund, at $341,430,477.70. This shows an estimated sur- 
plus for that year of $43,569,522.30, which is more likely to be in- 
creased than reduced when the actual transactions are written up. 

The existence of so large an actual and anticipated surplus should 
have the immediate attention of Congress, with a view to reducing 
the receipts of the Treasury to the needs of the Government as closely 
as may be. The collection of moneys not needed for public uses im- 
poses an unnecessary burden upon our people, and the presence of so 
large a surplus in the public vaults is a disturbing element in the con- 
duct of private business. It has called into use expedients for putting 
it into circulation of very questionable propriety. We should not 
collect revenue for the pvirpose of anticipating our bonds beyond the 
requirements of the sinking fund, but any unappropriated surplus in 
the Treasury should be so used, as there is no other lawful way of re- 
turning the money to circulation, and the profit realized by the Gov- 
ernment offers a substantial advantage. 

The loaning of public funds to the banks without interest upon the 
security of Government bonds I regard as an unauthorized and dan- 
gerous expedient. It results in a temporary and unnatural increase 
of the banking capital of favored localities and compels a cautious and 



Benjamin Harrison. 587 

gradual recall of the deposits to avoid injury to the commercial inter- 
ests. It IS not to be expected that the banks having these deposits 
will sell their bonds to the Treasury so long as the present highly bene- 
ficial arrangement is continued. They now practically get interest 
both upon the bonds and their proceeds. No further use should be 
made of this method of getting the surplus into circulation, and the 
deposits now outstanding should be gradually withdrawn and applied 
to the purchase of bonds. It is fortunate that such a use can be made 
of the existing surplus, and for some time to come of any casual sur- 
plus that may exist after Congress has taken the necessary steps for 
a reduction of the revenue. Such legislation should be promptly but 
very considerately enacted. 

I recommend a revision of our tariff law both in its administrative 
features and in the schedules. The need of the former is generally 
conceded, and an agreement upon the evils and inconveniences to be 
remedied and the best methods for their correction will probably not 
be difficult. Uniformity of valuation at all our ports is essential, and 
effective measures should be taken to secure it. It is equally desirable 
that questions affecting rates and classifications should be promptlv 
decided. 

The preparation of a new schedule of customs duties is a matter of 
great delicacy because of its direct effect upon the business of the 
country, and of great difficulty by reason of the wide divergence of 
opinion as to the objects that may properly be promoted by such 
legislation. Some disturbance of business may perhaps result from 
the consideration of this subject by Congress, but this temporary ill 
effect will be reduced to the minimum by prompt action and by the as- 
surance which the country already enjoys that any necessary changes 
will be so made as not to impair the just and reasonable protection of. 
our home industries. The inequalities of the law should be adjusted, 
but the protective principle should be maintained and fairly applied to 
the products of our farms as well as of our shops. These duties nec- 
essarily have relation to other things besides the public revenues. 
We can not limit their effects by fixing our eyes on the public Treas- 
ury alone. They have a direct relation to home production, to work, 
to wages, and to the commercial independence of our country, and the 
wise and patriotic legislator should enlarge the field of his vision to 
include all of these. The necessary reduction in our public revenues 
can, I am sure, be made without making the smaller burden more 
onerous than the larsfer bv reason of the disabilities and limitations 



588 History of the United States. 

which the process of reduction puts upon both capital and labor. The 
free list can very safely be extended by placing thereon articles that do 
not ofifer injurious competition to such domestic products as our home 
labor can supply. The removal of the internal tax upon tobacco 
would relieve an important agricultural product from a burden which 
was imposed only because our revenue from customs duties was in- 
sufficient for the public needs. If safe provision against fraud can 
be devised, the removal of the tax upon spirit used in the arts and in 
manufactures would also offer an unobjectionable method of reducing 
the surplus. 

A table presented by the Secretary of the Treasury showing the 
amount of money of all kinds in circulation each year from 1878 to the 
present time is of interest. It appears that the amount of national 
bank notes in circulation has decreased during that period $114,109,- 
729, of which $37,799,229 is chargeable to the last year. The with- 
drawal of bank circulation will necessarily continue under existing 
conditions. It is probable that the adoption of the suggestions made 
by the Comptroller of the Currency, namely, that the minimum deposit 
of bonds for the establishment of banks be reduced and that an issue 
of notes to the par value of the bonds be allowed, would help to main- 
tain the bank circulation. But while this withdrawal of bank notes 
has been going on there has been a large increase in the amount of 
gold and silver coin in circulation and in the issues of gold and silver 
certificates. 

The total amount of money of all kinds in circulation on March i, 
1878, was $805,793,807, while on October i, 1889, the total was 
$1,405,018,000. There was an increase of $293,417,552 in gold coin, 
of $57,554,100 in standard silver dollars, of $72,311,249 in gold cer- 
tificates, of $276,619,715 in silver certificates, and of $14,073,787 in 
United States notes, making a total of $713,976,403. There was dur- 
ing the same period a decrease of $114,109,729 in bank circulation and 
of $642,481 in subsidiary silver. The net increase was $599,224,193. 
The circulation per capita has increased about $5 during the time 
covered by the table referred to. 

The total coinage of silver dollars was on November i, 1889, $343- 
638,001, of which $283,539,521 were in the Treasury vaults and $60,- 
098,480 were in circulation. Of the amount in the vaults $277,319,944 
were represented by outstanding silver certificates, leaving $6,219,577 
not in circulation and not represented by certificates. 

The law requiring the purchase by the Treasury of $2,000,000 worth 



Benjamin Harrison. 589 

of silver bullion each month, to be coined into silver dollars of 412^ 
grains, has been observed by the Department, but neither the present 
Secretary nor any of his predecessors has deemed it safe to exercise 
the discretion given by law to increase the monthly purchases to 
$4,000,000. When the law was enacted (February 28, 1878) the price 
01 silver in the market was $1,204 per ounce, making the bullion value 
of the dollar 93 cents. Since that time the price has fallen as low as 
91.2 cents per ounce, reducing the bullion value of the dollar to 70.6 
cents. Within the last few months the market price has somewhat 
advanced, and on the ist day of November last the bullion value of the 
silver dollar was ^2 cents. 

The evil anticipations which have accompanied the coinage and use 
of the silver dollar have not been realized. As a coin it has not had 
general use, and the public Treasury has been compelled to store it. 
But this is manifestly owing to the fact that its paper representative 
is more convenient. The general acceptance and the use of the silver 
certificate show that silver has not been otherwise discredited. Some 
favorable conditions have contributed to maintain this practical 
equality in their commercial use between the gold and silver dollars; 
but some of these are trade conditions that statutory enactments do 
not control and of the continuance of which we can not be certain. 

I think it is clear that if we should make the coinage of silver at the 
present ratio free we must expect that the difference in the bullion 
values of the gold and silver dollars will be taken account of in com- 
mercial transactions ; and I fear the same result would follow any con- 
siderable increase of the present rate of coinage. Such a result would 
be discreditable to our financial management and disastrous to all 
business interests. We should not tread the dangerous edge of such 
a peril. And, indeed, nothing more harmful could happen to the 
silver interests. Any safe legislation upon this subject must secure 
the equality of the two coins in their commercial uses. 

I have always been an advocate of the use of silver in our currency. 
We are large producers of that metal and should not discredit it. 

Provision should be made for the acquisition of title to town lots 
in the towns now established in Alaska, for locating town sites, and 
for the establishment of municipal governments. Only the mining 
laws have been extended to that Territory, and no other form of title 
to lands can now be obtained. The general land laws were framed with 
reference to the disposition of agricultural lands, and it is doubtful if 
their operation in Alaska would be beneficial. 



590 History of the United States. 

We have fortunately not extended to Alaska the mistaken policy 
of establishing reservations for the Indian tribes, and can deal with 
them from the beginning as individuals with, I am sure, better results; 
but any disposition of the public lands and any regulations relating 
to timber and to the fisheries should have a kindly regard to their 
interests. Having no power to levy taxes, the people of Alaska are 
wholly dependent upon the General Government, to whose revenues 
the seal fisheries make a large annual contribution. An appropria- 
tion for education should neither be overlooked nor stinted. 

The smallness of the population and the great distances between 
the settlements ofifer serious obstacles to the establishment of the usual 
Territorial form of government. Perhaps the organization of several 
sub-districts with a small municipal council of limited powers for each 
would be safe and useful. 

Attention is called in this connection to the suggestions of the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury relating to the establishment of another port 
of entry in Alaska and of other needed customs facilities and regu- 
lations. 

The advent of four new States — South Dakota, North Dakota, 
Montana, and Washington — into the Union under the Constitution 
in the same month, and the admission of their duly chosen represen- 
tatives to our National Congress at the same session, is an event as 
unexampled as it is interesting. 

The creation of an Executive Department to be known as the De- 
partment of Agriculture by the act of February 9th last was a wise and 
timely response to a request which had long been respectfully urged 
by the farmers of the country; but much remains to be done to per- 
fect the organization of the Department so that it may fairly realize 
the expectations wdiich its creation excited. In this connection at- 
tention is called to the suggestions contained in the report of the Sec- 
retary, which is herewith submitted. The need of a law of^cer for the 
Department such as is provided for the other Executive Departments 
is manifest. The failure of the last Congress to make the usual pro- 
vision for the publication of the annual report should be promptly 
remedied. The public interest in the report and its value to the 
farming community, I am sure, will not be diminished under the new 
organization of the Department. 

I recommend that the weather service be separated from the War 
Department and established as a bureau in the Department of Agri- 
culture. This will involve an entire reorc"anization both of the 




TWENTY-THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 






/(w.r;- 



• /. 



SIGNATURE OF PRESIDENT HARRISON TO A STATE 
DOCUMENT 



Benjamin Harrison. 593 

Weather Bureau and of the Signal Corps, making of the first a purely 
civil organization and of the other a purely military stafif corps. The 
report of the Chief Signal Officer shows that the work of the corps on 
its military side has been deteriorating. 

The interests of the people of the District of Columbia should not 
be lost sight of in the pressure for consideration of measures affect- 
ing the whole country. Having no legislature of its own, either 
municipal or general, its people must look to Congress for the regu- 
lation of all those concerns that in the States are the subject of local 
control. Our whole people have an interest that the national capital 
should be made attractive and beautiful, and, above all, that its repute 
for social order should be well maintained. The laws regulating the 
sale of intoxicating drinks in the District should be revised with a' 
view to bringing the trafific under stringent limitations and control. 



SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER I, 189O. 

The admission of the States of Wyoming and Idaho to the Union 
are events full of interest and congratulation, not only to the people 
of those States now happily endowed with a full participation in our 
privileges and responsibilities, but to all our people. Another belt of 
States stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 



Whereas satisfactory proof has been presented (December 24, 1890) 
to me that provision has been made for adequate grounds and build- 
ings for the uses of the World's Columbian Exposition, and that a 
sum not less than $10,000,000, to be used and expended for the pur- 
poses of said exposition, has been provided in accordance with the 
conditions and requirements of section 10 of an act entitled "An act 
to provide for celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the dis- 
covery of America by Christopher Columbus by holding an interna- 
tional exhibition of arts, industries, manufactures, and the products 
of the soil, mine, and sea, in the city of Chicago, m the State of Illi- 
nois," approved April 25, 1890: 

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United 
States, by virtue of the authority vested in me by said act, do hereby 



594 History of the United States. 

declare and proclaim that such international exhibition will be opened 
on the 1st day of May, in the year 1893, in the city of Chicago, in the 
State of Illinois, and will not be closed before the last Thursday in 
October of the same year. And in the name of the Government and 
of the people of the United States I do hereby invite all the nations 
of the earth to take part in the commemoration of an event that is pre- 
eminent in human history and of lasting interest to mankind by ap- 
pointing representatives thereto and sending such exhibits to the 
World's Columbian Exposition as will most fitly and fully illustrate 
their resources, their industries, and their progress in civilization. 

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 9, 189I. 

On the 1 6th of October an event occurred in Valparaiso so serious 
and tragic in its circumstances and results as to very justly excite the 
indignation of our people and to call for prompt and decided action on 
the part of this Government. A considerable number of the sailors 
of the United States steamship " Baltimore," then in the harbor of 
Valparaiso, being iipon shore leave and unarmed, were assaulted by 
armed men nearly simultaneously in dififerent localities in the city. 
One petty of^cer was killed outright and seven or eight seamen were 
seriously wounded, one of whom has since died. So savage and 
brutal was the assault that several of our sailors received more than 
two and one as many as eighteen stab wounds. An investigation 
of the afTair was promptly made by a board of officers of the " Balti- 
more," and their report shows that these assaults were unprovoked, 
that our men were conducting themselves in a peaceable and orderly 
manner, and that some of the police of the city took part in the assault 
and used their weapons with fatal effect, while a few others, with some 
well-disposed citizens, endeavored to protect our men. Thirty-six 
of our sailors were arrested, and some of them while being taken to 
prison were cruelly beaten and maltreated. The fact that they were 
all discharged, no criminal charge being lodged against any one of 
them, shows very clearly that they were innocent of any breach of the 
peace. 

So far as I have yet been able to learn no other explanation of this 
bloody work has been suggested than that it had its origin in hos- 
tility to those men as sailors of the United States, wearing the uniform 
of their Government, and not in any individual act or personal ani- 
mosity. The attention of the Chilean Government was at once called 



Benjamin Harrison, 595 

to this affair, and a statement of the facts obtained by the investigation 
we had conducted was submitted, accompanied by a request to be 
advised of any other or quaUfying facts in the possession of the Chilean 
Government that might tend to reheve this affair of the appearance 
of an insult to this Government, The Chilean Government was also 
advised that if such qualifying facts did not exist this Government 
would confidently expect full and prompt reparation. 

It is to be regretted that the reply of the Secretary for Foreign Af- 
fairs of the Provisional Government was couched in an offensive tone. 
To this no response has been made. This Government is now await- 
ing the result of an investigation which has been conducted by the 
criminal court at Valparaiso. It is reported unofficially that the in- 
vestigation is about complete, and it is expected that the result will 
soon be communicated to this Government, together with some ade- 
quate and satisfactory response to the note by which the attention 
of Chile was called to this incident. If these just expectations should 
be disappointed or further needless delay intervene, I w-ill by a special 
message bring this matter again to the attention of Congress for such 
action as may be necessary. 



Whereas by a joint resolution approved June 29, 1892, it was re- 
solved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled — 

That the President of the United States be authorized and directed to issue a 
proclamation recommending to the people the observance in all their localities 
of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, on the 21st of 
October. 1892, by public demonstrations and by suitable exercises in their 
schools and other places of assembly. 

Now, therefore (July 21, 1892), I, Benjamin Harrison, President of 
the United States of America, in pursuance of the aforesaid joint reso- 
lution, do hereby appoint Friday, October 21, 1892, the four hundredth 
anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus, as a General 
Holiday for the people of the United States. On that day let the 
people, so far as possible, cease from toil and devote themselves to such 
exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer and their appre- 
ciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of 
American life. 



596 History of the United States. 

Columbus stood in his age as the pioneer of progress and enHght- 
enment. The system of universal education is in our age the most 
prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it 
is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the 
center of the day's demonstration. Let the national flag float over 
every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall 
impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship. 

In the churches and in the other places of assembly of the people 
let there be expressions of gratitude to Divine Providence for the 
devout faith of the discoverer and for the divine care and guidance 
which has directed our history and so abundantly blessed our people. 

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 6, 1892. 

There never has been a time i[\ our history when work was so 
abundant or when wages were as high, whether measured by the 
currency in which they are paid or by their power to supply the 
necessaries and comforts of life. It is true that the market prices of 
cotton and wheat have been low. It is one of the unfavorable inci- 
dents of agriculture that the farmer can not produce upon orders. He 
must sow and reap in ignorance of the aggregate production of the 
year, and is peculiarly subject to the depreciation which follows over- 
production. But while the fact I have stated is true as to the crops 
mentioned, the general average of prices has been such as to give to 
agriculture a fair participation in the general prosperity. The value of 
our total farm products has increased from $1,363,646,866 in i860 to 
$4,500,000,000 in 1891, as estimated by statisticians, an increase of 
230 per cent. The number of hogs January i, 1891, was 50,625,106 
and their value $210,193,925; on January i, 1892, the number was 
52,398,019 and the value $241,031,415. On January i, 1891, the num- 
ber of cattle was 36,875,648 and the value $544,127,908; on January 
I, 1892, the number was 37,651,239 and the value $570,749,155. 

If any are discontented with their state here, if any believe that 
wages or prices, the returns for honest toil, are inadequate, they should 
not fail to remember that there is no other country in the world 
where the conditions that seem to them hard would not be accepted as 
highly prosperous. The English agriculturist would be glad to ex- 
change the returns of his labor for those of the American farmer and 
the Manchester workmen their wages for those of their fellows at 
Fall River. 



Benjamin Harrison. 597 

I believe that the protective system, which has now for something 
more than thirty years continuously prevailed in our legislation, has 
been a mighty instrument for the development of our national wealth 
and a most powerful agency in protecting the homes of our working- 
men from the invasion of want. I have felt a most solicitous interest 
to preserve to our working people rates of wages that would not only 
give daily bread, but supply a comfortable margin for those home at- 
tractions and family comforts and enjoyments without which life is 
neither hopeful nor sweet. They are American citizens — a part of 
the great people for whom our Constitution and Government were 
framed and instituted — and it can not be a perversion of that Consti- 
tution to so legislate as to preserve in their homes the comfort, in- 
dependence, loyalty, and sense of interest in the Government which 
are essential to good citizenship in peace, and which will bring this 
stalwart throng, as in 1861, to the defense of the flag when it is as- 
sailed. 

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will attract especial in- 
terest in view of the many misleading statements that have been 
made as to the state of the public revenues. Three preliminary facts 
should not only be stated but emphasized before looking into details: 
First, that the public debt has been reduced since March 4, 1889, 
$259,074,200, and the annual interest charge $11,684,469; second, that 
there have been paid out for pensions during this Administration up 
to November i, 1892, $432,564,178.70, an excess of $114,466,386.09 
over the sum expended during the period from March i, 1885, to 
March i, 1889; and, third, that under the existing tarifY up to Decem- 
ber 1st about $93,000,000 of revenue which would have been collected 
upon imported sugars if the duty had been maintained has gone into 
the pockets of the people, and not into the public Treasury, as be- 
fore. If there are any who still think that the surplus should have 
been kept out of circulation by hoarding it in the Treasury, or de- 
posited in favored banks without interest while the Government con- 
tinued to pay to these very banks interest upon the bonds deposited 
as security for the deposits, or who think that the extended pension 
legislation was a public robbery, or that the duties upon sugar should 
have been maintained, I am content to leave the argument where it 
now rests while we wait to see whether these criticisms will take the 
form of legislation. 

Ever since our merchant marhic was driven from the sea by the rebel 
cruisers during the War of the Rebellion the United States has been 



598 History of the United States. 

paying an enormous annual tribute to foreign countries in the shape of 
freight and passage moneys. Our grain and meats have been taken 
at our own docks and our large imports there laid down by foreign 
shipmasters. An increasing torrent of American travel to Europe 
has contributed a vast sinu annually to the dividends of foreign ship- 
owners. The balance of trade shown by the books of our custom- 
houses has been very largely reduced and in many years altogether 
extinguished by this constant drain. In the year 1892 only 12.3 per 
cent, of our imports were brought in American vessels. These great 
foreign steamships maintained by our traffic are many of them under 
contracts with their respective Governments by which in time of war 
they will become a part of their armed naval establishments. Profiting 
by our commerce in peace, they will become the most formidable 
destroyers of our commerce in time of war. I have felt, and have 
before expressed the feeling, that this condition of things was both 
intolerable and disgraceful. A wholesome change of policy, and one 
having in it much promise, as it seems to me, was begun by the law 
of March 3, 1891. Under this law contracts have been made by the 
Postmaster-General for eleven mail routes. The expenditure in- 
volved by these contracts for the next fiscal year approximates 
$954,123.33. As one of the results already reached sixteen American 
steamships, of an aggregate tonnage of 57,400 tons, costing $7,400,000, 
have been built or contracted to be built in American shipyards. 

The estimated tonnage of all steamships required under existing 
contracts is 165,802, and when the full service required by these con- 
tracts is established there will be forty-one mail steamers under the 
American flag, with the probability of further necessary additions in 
the Brazilian and Argentine service. The contracts recently let for 
transatlantic service will result in the construction of five ships of 
10,000 tons each, costing $9,000,000 to $10,000,000, and will add, with 
the City of New York and City of Paris, to which the Treasury De- 
partment was authorized by legislation at the last session to give 
American registry, seven of the swiftest vessels upon the sea to our 
naval reserve. The contracts made with the lines sailing to Central 
and South American ports have increased the frequency and shortened 
the time of the trips, added new ports of call, and sustained some lines 
that otherwise would almost certainly have been withdrawn. The 
service to Buenos Ayres is the first to the Argentine Republic under 
the American flag. The service to Southampton, Boulogne, and 
Antwerp is also new, and is to be begun with the steamships City of 
New York and City of Paris in February next. 



Benjamin Harrison. 599 

I earnestly urge the continuance of the poHcy inaugurated by this 
legislation, and that the appropriations required to meet the obligations 
of the Government under the contracts may be made promptly, so 
that the lines that have entered into these engagements may not be 
embarrassed. We have had, by reason of connections with the trans- 
continental railway lines constructed through our own territory, some 
advantages in the ocean trade of the Pacific that we did not possess 
on the Atlantic. The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway 
and the establishment under large subventions from Canada and 
England of fast steamship service from Vancouver with Japan and 
China seriously threaten our shipping interests in the Pacific. This 
line of English steamers receives, as is stated by the Commissioner of 
Navigation, a direct subsidy of $400,000 annually, or $30,767 per trip 
for thirteen voyages, in addition to some further aid from the Ad- 
miralty in connection with contracts under which the vessels may be 
used for naval purposes. The competing American Pacific mail line 
under the act of March 3, 1891, receives only $6,389 per round trip. 

At the beginning of Secretary Tracy's administration several difficult 
problems remained to be grappled with and solved before the efficiency 
in action of our ships could be secured. It is believed that as the result 
of new processes in the construction of armor plate our later ships will 
be clothed with defensive plates of higher resisting power than are 
found on any war vessels afloat. We were without torpedoes. Tests 
have been made to ascertain the relative efficiency of different con- 
structions, a torpedo has been adopted, and the work of construction is 
now being carried on successfully. We were without armor-piercing 
shells and without a shop instructed and equipped for the construction 
of them. We are now making what is believed to be a projectile su- 
perior to any before in use. A smokeless powder has been developed 
and a slow-burning powder for guns of large caliber. A high explosive 
capable of use in shells fired from service guns has been found, and 
the manufacture of gun cotton has been developed so that the question 
of supply is no longer in doubt. 

The development of a naval militia, which has been organized in 
eight States and brought into cordial and co-operative relations with 
the Navy, is another important achievement. There are now en- 
listed in these organizations 1,800 men, and they are likely to be 
greatly extended. I recommend such legislation and appropriations 
as will encouraare and develoo this movement. 



6oo History of the United States. 

I transmit, with a view to its ratification, a treaty, February 15, 1893, 
of annexation concluded on the 14th day of February, 1893, between 
John W. Foster, Secretary of State, who was duly empowered to act 
in that behalf on the part of the United States, and Lorin A. Thurston, 
W. R. Castle, W. C. Wilder, C. L. Carter, and Joseph Marsden, the 
commissioners on the part of the Government of the Hawaiian Islands. 
The provisional treaty, it will be observed, does not attempt to deal 
in detail with the questions that grow out of the annexation of the 
Hawaiian Islands to the United States. The commissioners repre- 
senting the Hawaiian Government have consented to leave to the 
future and to the just and benevolent purposes of the United States 
the adjustment of all such questions. 

I do not deem it necessary to discuss at any length the conditions 
which have resulted in this decisive action. It has been the policy of 
the Administration not only to respect but to encourage the contin- 
uance of an independent goverment in the Hawaiian Islands so long 
as it afiforded suitable guaranties for the protection of life and property 
and maintained a stability and strength that gave adequate security 
against the domination of any other power. The moral support of 
this Government has continually manifested itself in the most friendly 
diplomatic relations and in many acts of courtesy to the Hawaiian 
rulers. 

The overthrow of the monarchy was not in any way promoted by 
this Government, but had its origin in what seems to have been a re- 
actionary and revolutionary policy on the part of Queen Liliuokalani, 
which put in serious peril not only the large and preponderating inter- 
ests of the United States in the islands, but all foreign interests, and, 
indeed, the decent administration of civil affairs and the peace of the 
islands. It is quite evident that the monarchy had become efifete and 
the Queen's Government so weak and inadequate as to be the prey 
of designing and unscrupulous persons. The restoration of Queen 
Liliuokalani to her throne is undesirable, if not impossible, and unlef s 
actively supported by the United States would be accompanied by 
serious disaster and the disorganization of all business interests. The 
influence and interest of the United States in the islands must be in- 
creased and not diminished. 

Only two courses are now open — one the establishment of a pro- 
tectorate by the United States, and the other annexation full and com- 
plete. I think the latter course, which has been adopted in the treaty, 
will be highly promotive of the best interests of the Hawaiian people, 



Benjamin Harrison. 6oi 

and is the only one that will adequately secure the interests of the 
United States. These interests are not wholly selfish. It is essential 
that none of the other great powers shall secure these islands. Such 
a possession would not consist with our safety and with the peace of 
the world. This view of the situation is so apparent and conclusive 
that no protest has been heard from any government against proceed- 
ings looking to annexation. Every foreign representative at Hono- 
lulu promptly acknowledged the Provisional Government, and I think 
there is a general concurrence in the opinion that the deposed Queen 
ought not to be restored. 

Prompt action upon this treaty is very desirable. If it meets the ap- 
proval of the Senate, peace and good order will be secured in the 
islands under existing laws until such time as Congress can provide by 
legislation a permanent form of government for the islands. This 
legislation should be, and I do not doubt will be, not only just to the 
natives and all other residents and citizens of the islands, but should 
be characterized by great liberality and a high regard to the rights of 
all people and of all foreigners domiciled there. The correspondence 
which accompanies the treaty will put the Senate in possession of all 
the facts known to the Executive. 

Whereas (January 4, 1893), Congress by a statute approved March 
22, 1882, and by statutes in furtherance and amendment thereof de- 
fined the crimes of bigamy, polygamy, and unlawful cohabitation in 
the Territories and other places within the exclusive jurisdiction of 
the United States and prescribed a penalty for such crimes; and 

Whereas on or about the 6th day of October, 1890, the Church 
of the Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Qiurch, 
through its president issued a manifesto proclaiming the purpose of 
said church no longer to sanction the practice of polygamous mar- 
riages and calling upon all members and adherents of said church to 
obey the laws of the United States in reference to said subject-matter; 
and 

Whereas it is represented that since the date of said declaration the 
members and adherents of said church have generally obeyed said laws 
and have abstained from plural marriages and polygamous cohabita- 
tion; and 

Whereas by a petition dated December 19, 1891, the officials of said 
church, pledging the membership thereof to a faithful obedience to 
the laws against plural marriage and unlawful cohabitation, have ap- 
plied to me to grant amnesty for past ofifenses against said laws, which 



6o2 History of the United States. 

request a very large number of influential non-Mormons residing in 
the Territories have also strongly urged; and 

Whereas the Utah Commission in their report bearing date Sep- 
tember 15, 1892, recommend that said petition be granted and said 
amnesty proclaimed, under proper conditions as to the future ob- 
servance of the law, with a view to the encouragement of those now 
disposed to become law-abiding citizens; and 

Whereas during the past two years such amnesty has been granted 
to individual applicants in a very large number of cases, conditioned 
upon the faithful observance of the laws of the United States against 
unlawful cohabitation, and there are now pending many more such ap- 
plications: 

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United 
States, by virtue of the powers in me vested, do hereby declare and 
grant a full amnesty and pardon to all persons liable to the penalties 
of said act by reason of unlawful cohabitation under the color of polyg- 
amous or plural marriage who have since November i, 1890, ab- 
stained from such unlawful cohabitation, but upon the express con- 
dition that they shall in the future faithfully obey the laws of the 
United States hereinbefore named, and not otherwise. Those who 
shall fail to avai4 themselves of the clemency hereby offered will be 
vigorously prosecuted. 



LIFE OF BENJAMIN HARRISON. 

BENJAMIN HARRISON was born at North Bend, Ohio, Au- 
gust 20, 1823. He is grandson of General William Henry Har- 
rison, who became President of the United States in 1841, His 
father, John Scott Harrison, was married the second tim.e to Eliza- 
beth Irwin. Benjamin was a son of this marriage. He was care- 
fully instructed by a private teacher at home and then sent to a school 
near Cincinnati, where he was fitted for Miami University, at Oxford, 
Ohio, which he graduated from in 1852. The next year he married 
Miss Caroline Scott, daughter of Dr. John W. Scott, of Oxford. He 
was admitted to the bar in 1854, and began to practice at Indianapolis, 
Ind., which he continued until the Civil War began, when he at once 
became active in raising the Seventieth Indiana Regiment of Volun- 
teers. He was commissioned its colonel. He fought through the war, 
and at its close went with his regiment to Washington, and took part 



Benjamin Harrison. 603 

in the grand review of the armies. He was brevetted brigadier-general 
January 23, 1865, and mustered out of service the following June. 
He stumped the State of Indiana in support of General Grant in the 
Presidential campaigns of 1868 and 1872. He was early noted as a 
most effective impromptu speaker, never using notes. President Gar- 
field offered him an appointment in his Cabinet, which he declined, 
preferring to serve the State of Indiana, which had elected him to the 
United States Senate, which office he held from 1881 to 1887. He 
was elected to the Presidency November, 1888. He was renominated 
in 1892, but was defeated at the November election. On leaving the 
White House he returned to his home at Indianapolis, where he still 
resides, his first wife having died. He married Mrs. Dimmick, a 
niece of his first wife. 



6o4 History of the United States. 



CHAPTER XXIV 



PRESIDENT McKINLEY'S ADMINISTRATION. 



By Congressman Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois. 



"\ T O two years of our national history, since the close of the Civil War, have 
■*• ^ been so big with great events or have seen such masterful treatment of 
the same as the two years covered by the first half of William McKinley's 
Administration and by the Fifty-fifth Congress. Administration and legislation 
have been both wise and efficient. 

The history of the country shows that in time of war, when public attention 
is directed chieffy to military matters, the expenditures of the Government are 
apt to do without proper attention, and, what is of far greater consequence, 
enterprising individuals or interests attempt to utilize public sentiment and 
commit the Government to expenditures from the Treasury to carry out 
policies meeting with public favor without properly safeguarding the machinery 
necessary to accomplish the end in view. But, the Congress that has just 
expired has been peculiarly fortunate; first, in having been able to maintain a 
close scrutiny of appropriations; and, second, in having successfully resisted 
projects prompted by selfish interests that were claimed to be proper for 
carrying out public sentiment, but which would, in reality, have defeated the 
realization of such sentiment, or would have at least delayed the construction 
of great works necessary for the national welfare. 

A case in point was the proposition to construct the Nicaragua canal. There 
is an almost universal public sentiment demanding the construction of an 
Isthmian canal that will unite the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. 
The public defense, on the one hand, and the interests of the commerce of the 
United States and of the world, on the other, demand such a canal. A bill was 
proposed and passed by the Senate committing the United States to the con- 
struction of the Nicaragua canal and the practical acquirement, at a cost of 
$5,000,000, of an alleged concession from Nicaragua and Costa Rica to the 



I 



William McKinley. 605 

Maritime Canal Company for the construction thereof, while in truth and fact, 
if said concession has not already expired, it will expire in October next; and 
even if it had not expired the United States could not afford to construct a 
canal under its provisions. 

If the Senate bill or any measure proposed had been enacted, the United 
States would have paid $5,000,000 for a worthless concession and would have 
been committed by law to the construction of a canal along the Nicaragua 
route, and under such conditions it would have been compelled, before we 
threw a spadeful of earth or in any way began actual construction, to have 
acquired by treaty from Nicaragua and Costa Rica the territory whereon to 
construct the canal and the right to construct it. Such legislation would have 
delayed and embarrassed the construction of an isthmian canal. The United 
States can not afford to enter upon this greal work until it has acquired, by 
treaty, a zone of territory whereon to construct the same. 

Fortunately the House of Representatives resisted the enactment of the pro- 
posed legislation, and the contest between the Senate and the House resulted 
finally in the only practical provision possible, viz., the appropriation of 
$1,000,000 to enable the President to make a full and complete investigation of 
the Isthmus, with a view to the future construction of a canal across the same, 
particularly the Panama and Nicaragua routes, and to report to Congress the 
result, with his recommendations in the premises. In addition to this, the 
President already has the sole power to negotiate treaties for a site for said 
canal, which treaties must be made and ratified before the Government can 
begin construction. 

During the whole of the four years covered by Mr. Cleveland's second Ad- 
ministration the material and industrial condition of the country was calam- 
itous, and its contemplation does not bring satisfaction to any American 
citizen. But the Fifty-fifth Congress, beginning with the Administration of 
William McKinley, and promptly called in extraordinary session, as promptly 
enacted legislation which has yielded the additional revenues needed to pay the 
ordinary expenses of the Government, and has at the same time protected 
American labor. With the enactment of that legislation hope and confidence 
struck hands, and the condition of the whole country improved and has con- 
tinued to improve from that time to the present. Labor is now universally 
employed with increasing wage, and with such employment the means are 
supplied for increased consumption. 

In addition, without taking time to discuss in detail the causes that led 
thereto, Congress declared war against Spain; and the prompt and decisive 
successes of the Army and Navy upon land and sea have never been equalled 
anywhere in history. The great expenditures rendered necessary by the war 



6o6 History of the United States. 

required the enactment of additional revenue legislation, and that legislation 
is now bringing into our Treasury an additional $100,000,000 per annum. 

The vast increase of the navy and the creation of an army of a quarter of a 
million men, together with the increase of taxation, have not in any appreciable 
degree checked our industrial advance, which began coincidentally with the 
incoming of the present Administration and the Fifty-fifth Congress. 

As a logical sequence of war, outlying territories formerly belonging to 
Spain have by the treaty of peace and by the occupation of our Army and Navy, 
come under the jurisdiction of the United States, and a military government 
under the direction of the President, and in conformity with the peace treaty, 
is established in those outlying territories and will continue until Congress ir 
the future shall provide by legislation such civil government as the interests of 
the United States and the condition and well being of the people therein may 
demand. 

The Administration of William McKinley and the Fifty-fifth Congress have 
grappled successfully and wisely with all questions of peace and war that they 
have been called upon to consider. And in passing let me call attention to 
our great success in securing the adjustment of the large indebtedness due to 
the Government from the Pacific railroads. Under the Administration of Mr. 
Cleveland, in the then depressed condition of the country, the large indebted 
ness due from those railroads was regarded as practically lost, and we would 
have been glad to have secured its settlement by the payment of one-half of it. 
But, with the return of prosperity, so wisely promoted by sound legislation* 
and administration, the indebtedness of the Union Pacific, amounting in round 
numbers to $59,000,000, has been collected and paid into the Treasury, while the 
principal of the indebtedness of the Kansas Pacific, amounting to over 
$6,000,000, has also been collected and paid into the Treasury. Under legisla- 
tion enacted by the second session of the Congress just expired, the Administra- 
tion has settled and secured the whole of the debt, both principal and interest, 
due from the Central Pacific, likewise amounting, in round numbers, to 
$59,000,000. If any one had predicted at the beginning of this Administration 
that it would be possible to collect and secure these great sums to the United 
States he would have been laughed at as a prophet abounding in neither 
inspiration nor wisdom. 

It is not my purpose now to discuss questions connected with legislation 
hereafter to be enacted. I prefer rather to await the logic of events and the full 
information that will doubtless come, as I hope, between now and the organiza- 
tion in December next of the newly-elected Congress. But I venture the 
assertion and the prediction that the United States could not, if it would, and 



William McKinley. 607 

would not if it could, part with the territories acquired from Spain by the 
treaty of peace, or shirk its duties and responsibiUties touchhig them. 

Turning our faces toward the new problems that will be presented for our 
consideration and action, I am confident that we shall in the future, as we have 
solved other problems in the past, solve them successfully, bringing to our aid 
in their solution courage, wisdom, and patriotism. 



f,4. 



ft 



^.ymur^'^— 



6o8 History of the United States. 



ADMINISTRATION BEGINNING 1897. 



By William McKinley. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1897. 

THE responsibilities of the high trust to which I have been called 
— always of grave importance — are augmented by the prevail- 
ing business conditions, entailing idleness upon willing labor 
and loss to useful enterprises. The country is suffering from industrial 
aisturbances from which speedy relief must be had. Our financial sys- 
tem needs some revision; our money is all good now, but its value 
must not further be threatened. It should all be put upon an endur- 
ing basis, not subject to easy attack, nor its stability to doubt or dis- 
pute. Our currency should continue under the supervision of the 
Government. The several forms of our paper money ofifer, in my 
judgment, a constant embarrassment to the Government and a safe 
balance in the Treasury. Therefore, I believe it necessary to devise 
a system which, without diminishing the circulating medium or of- 
fering a premium for its contraction, will present a remedy for those 
arrangements which, temporary in their nature, might well in the 
years of our prosperity have been displaced by wiser provisions. 

With adequate revenue secured, but not until then, we can enter 
upon such changes in our fiscal laws as will, while insuring safety 
and volume to our money, no longer impose upon the Government 
the necessity of maintaining so large a gold reserve, with its attend- 
ant and inevitable temptation to speculation. Most of our financial 
laws are the outgrowth of experience and trial, and should not be 
amended without investigation and demonstration of the wisdom of 
the proposed changes. We must be both "sure we are right" and 
" make haste slowly.' If, therefore. Congress in its wisdom shall 
deem it expedient to create a commission to take under early con- 
sideration the revision of our coinage, banking, and currency laws, 
and give them that exhaustive, careful, and dispassionate examina- 
tion that their importance demands, I shall cordially concur in such 
action. 



^^^i^^^^^^tr^^^^ ^u^/ L^.^.^^^ 




TWENTY-FIFTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 




K 
O 

"^ 

o 

< 
U 

E- 

o 

K 
w 

s 

w 
Q 

I— I 

c/i 

w 



William McKinley, 6il 

It has been the pohcy of the United Stales since the foundation 
of the Government to cultivate relations of peace and amity with 
all the nations of the world, and this accords with my conception of 
our duty now. We have cherished the policy of noninterference with 
the affairs of foreign Governments wisely inaugurated by Washing- 
ton, keeping ourselves free from entanglement, either as allies or foes, 
content to leave undisturbed with them the settlement of their own 
domestic concerns. It will be our aim to pursue a firm and dignified 
foreign policy, which shall be just, impartial, ever watchful of our 
national honor, and always insisting upon the enforcement of the 
lawful rights of American citizens everywhere. Our diplomacy should 
seek nothing more and accept nothing less than is due us. We want 
no wars of conquest; we must avoid the temptation of territorial ag- 
gression. War should never be entered upon until every agency of 
peace has failed; peace is preferable to war in almost every contin- 
gency. 

Arbitration is the true method of settlement of international as well 
as local or individual differences. It was recognized as the best 
means of adjustment of differences between employers and employees 
by the Forty-ninth Congress in 1886, and its application was extended 
to our diplomatic relations by the unanimous concurrence of the Sen- 
ate and House of the Fifty-first Congress in 1890. The latter resolu- 
tion was accepted as the basis of negotiations with us by the British 
House of Commons in 1893, and upon our invitation a treaty of ar- 
bitration between the United States and Great Britain was signed at 
Washington and transmitted to the Senate for its ratification in Jan- 
uary last. Since this treaty is clearly the result of our own initiative; 
since it has been recognized as the leading feature of our foreign 
policy throughout our entire national history — the adjustment of 
difBculties by judicial methods rather than force of arms; and since 
it presents to the world the glorious example of reason and peace, 
not passion and war, controlling the relations between two of the 
greatest nations in the world, an example certain to be followed by 
others, I respectfully urge the early action of the Senate thereon, not 
merely as a matter of policy, but as a duty to mankind. The im- 
portance and moral influence of the ratification of such a treaty can 
hardly be overestimated in the cause of advancing civilization. It 
may well engage the best thought of the statesmen and people of 
every country, and I can not but consider it fortunate that it was 
reserved to the United States to have the leadership in so grand a 
work. 



6i2 History of the United States. 

SPECIAL CESSION MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, MARCH 1 5, 1897. 

Regretting the necessity which has required me (March 15, 1897) 
to call you together, I feel that your assembling in extraordinary ses- 
sion is indispensable because of the condition in which we find the 
revenues of the Government. It is conceded that its current expendi- 
tures are greater than its receipts, and that such a condition has ex- 
isted for now more than three years. With unlimited means at our 
command, we are presenting the remarkable spectacle of increasing 
our public debt by borrowing money to meet the ordinary outlays 
incident upon even an economical and prudent administration of the 
Government. An examination of the subject discloses this fact in 
every detail and leads inevitably to the conclusion that the condition 
of the revenue which allows it is unjustifiable and should be cor- 
rected. 

We find by the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury that the 
revenues for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, from all sources 
were $425,868,260.22, and the expenditures for all purposes were 
$415,953,806.56, leaving an excess of receipts over expenditures of 
$9,914,453.66. During that fiscal year $40,570,467.98 were paid upon 
the public debt, which had been reduced since March i, 1889, 
$259,076,890, and the annual interest charge decreased $11,684,576.60. 
The receipts of the Government from all sources during the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1893, amounted to $461,716,561.94, and its expendi- 
tures to $459,374,887.65, showing an excess of receipts over expendi- 
tures of $2,341,674.29. 

Since that time the receipts of no fiscal year, and with but few 
exceptions of no month of any fiscal year, have exceeded the expendi- 
tures. The receipts of the Government, from all sources, during the 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, were $372,802,498.29, and its ex- 
penditures $442,605,758.87, leaving a deficit, the first since the resump- 
tion of specie payments, of $69,803,260.58. Notwithstanding there 
was a decrease of $16,769,128.78 in the ordinary expenses of the Gov- 
ernment, as compared with the previous fiscal year, its income was 
still not sufficient to provide for its daily necessities, and the gold re- 
serve in the Treasury for the redemption of greenbacks was drawn 
upon to meet them. But this did not suffice, and the Government then 
resorted to loans to replenish the reserve. 

In February, 1894, $50,000,000 in bonds were issued, and in No- 
vember following, a second issue of $50,000,000 was deemed necessary. 



/ 



(' 



William McKinley. 613 

The sum of $117,171,795 was realized by the sale of these bonds, but 
the reserve was steadily decreased until, on February 8, 1895, a third 
sale of $62,315,400 in bonds, for $65,116,244, was announced to Con- 
gress. 

The receipts of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1895, were $390,373,203.30, and the expenditures $433,178,426.48, 
showing a deficit of $42,805,223.18. A further loan of $100,000,000 
was negotiated by the Government in February, 1896, the sale netting 
$111,166,246, and swelling the aggregate of bonds issued within three 
years to $262,315,400. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1896, the 
revenues of the Government from all sources amounted to 
$409,475,408.78, while its expenditures were $434,678,654.48, or an 
excess of expenditures over receipts of $25,203,245.70. In other 
words, the total receipts for the three fiscal years ending June 30, 1896, 
were insufficient by $137,811,729.46 to meet the total expenditures. 

Nor has this condition since improved. For the first half of the 
present fiscal year, the receipts of the Government, exclusive of postal 
revenues, were $157,507,603.76, and its expenditures, exclusive of 
postal service, $195,410,000.22, or an excess of expenditures over re- 
ceipts of $37,902,396.46. In January of this year, the receipts, ex- 
clusive of postal revenues, were $24,316,994.05, and the expenditures, 
exclusive of postal service, $30,269,389.29, a deficit of $5,952,395.24 
for the month. In February of this year, the receipts, exclusive of pos- 
tal revenues, were $24,400,997.38, and expenditures, exclusive of postal 
service, $28,796,056.66, a deficit of $4,395,059.28; or a total deficiency 
of $186,061,580.44 for the three years and eight months ending March 
I, 1897. Not only are we without a surplus in the Treasury, but with 
an increase in the public debt there has been a corresponding increase 
in the annual interest charge, from $22,893,883.20 in 1892, the lowest 
of any year since 1862, to $34,387,297.60 in 1896, or an increase of 
$11,493,414.40. 

It may be urged that even if the revenues of the Government had 
been sufficient to meet all its ordinary expenses during the p^ast three 
years, the gold reserve would still have been insufficient to meet the 
demands upon it, and that bonds would necessarily have been issued 
for its repletion. Be this as it may, it is clearly manifest, without 
denying or affirming the correctness of such a conclusion, tliat the 
debt would have been decreased in at least the amount of the de- 
ficiency, and business confidence immeasurably strengthened through- 
out the country. 



6i4 History of the United States. 

Congress should promptly correct the existing condition. Ample 
revenues must be supplied not only for the ordinary expenses of the 
Government, but for the prompt payment of liberal pensions and the 
liquidation of the principal and interest of the public debt. In raising 
revenue, duties should be so levied upon foreign products as to pre- 
serve the home market, so far as possible, to our own producers; to 
revive and increase manufactures; to relieve and encourage agricul- 
ture; to increase our domestic and foreign commerce; to aid and 
develop mining and building; and to render to labor in every field of 
useful occupation the liberal wages and adequate rewards to which 
skill and industry are justly entitled. The necessity of the passage of 
a tariff law which shall provide ample revenue, need not be further 
urged. The imperative demand of the hour is the prompt enactment 
of such a measure, and to this object I earnestly recommend that Con- 
gress shall make every endeavor. Before other business is transacted, 
let us first provide sulHcient revenue to faithfully administer the Gov- 
ernment without the contracting of further debt, or the continued dis- 
turbance of our finances. 

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 6, 1897. 

Tariff legislation having been settled by the extra session of Con- 
gress, the question next pressing for consideration is that of the cur- 
rency. 

The work of putting our finances upon a sound basis, difficult as 
it may seem, will appear easier when we recall the financial opera- 
tions of the Government since 1866. On the 30th day of June of 
that year we had outstanding demand liabilities in the sum of 
$728,868,447.41. On the 1st of January, 1879, these liabilities had 
been reduced to $443,889,495.88. Of our interest-bearing obligations, 
the figures are even more striking. On July i, 1866, the principal of 
the interest-bearing debt of the Government was $2,332,331,208. On 
the 1st day of July, 1893, the sum had been reduced to $585,037,100, 
or an aggregate reduction of $1,747,294,108. The interest-bearing 
debt of the United States on the ist day of December, 1897, was 
$847,365,620. The Government money now outstanding (December 
i) consists of $346,681,016 of United States notes, $107,793,280 of 
Treasury notes issued by authority of the law of 1890, $384,963,504 of 
silver, certificates, and $61,280,761 of standard silver dollars. 

With the great resources of the Government and with the honor- 
able example of the past before us, we ought not to hesitate to enter 



William McKixley. 615 

upon a currency revision which will make our demand obligations 
less onerous to the Government and relieve our financial laws from 
ambiguity and doubt. 

The brief review of what was accomplished from the close of the 
war to 1893, makes unreasonable and groundless any distrust either 
of our financial ability or soundness; while the situation from 1893 
to 1897 must admonish Congress of the immediate necessity of so 
legislating as to make the return of the conditions then prevailing 
impossible. 

There are many plans proposed as a remedy for the evil. Before 
we can find the true remedy we must appreciate the real evil. It is 
not that our currency of every kind is not good, for every dollar of 
it is good; good because the Government's pledge is out to keep it 
so, and that pledge will not be broken. However, the guaranty of 
our purpose to keep the pledge will be best shown by advancing 
toward its fulfillment. 

The evil of the present system is found in the great cost to the 
Government of maintaining the parity of our different forms of 
money, that is, keeping all of them at par with gold. We surely 
can not be longer heedless of the burden this imposes upon the peo- 
ple, even under fairly prosperous conditions, while the past four years 
have demonstrated that it is not only an expensive charge upon the 
Government, but a dangerous menace to the National credit. 

It is manifest that we must devise some plan to protect the Govern- 
ment against bond issues for repeated redemptions. We must either 
curtail the opportunity for speculation, made easy by the multiplied 
redemptions of our demand obligations, or increase the gold reserve 
for their redemption. We have $900,000,000 of currency which the 
Government by solemn enactment has undertaken to keep at par 
with gold. Nobody is obliged to redeem in gold but the Government. 
The banks are not required to redeem in gold. The Government is 
obliged to keep equal with gold all its outstanding currency and coin 
obligations, while its receipts are not required to be paid in gold. 
They are paid in every kind of money but gold, and the only means 
by which the Government can with certainty get gold is by borrowing. 
It can get it in no other way when it most needs it. The Government 
without any fixed gold revenue is pledged to maintain gold redemp- 
tion, which it has steadily and faithfully done and which under the 
authority now given it will continue to do. 

The law which requires the Government after having redeemed 



(3i6 History of the United States. 

its United States notes to pay them out again as current funds de- 
mands a constant replenishment of the gold reserve. This is es- 
pecially so in times of business panic and when the revenues are in- 
sufilicient to meet the expenses of the Government. At such times 
the Government has no other way to supply its deficit and maintain 
redemption but through the increase of its bonded debt, as during the 
Administration of my predecessor when $262,315,400 of four-and-a- 
half per cent, bonds were issued and sold and the proceeds used to 
pay the expenses of the Government in excess of the revenues and sus- 
tain the gold reserve. While it is true that the greater part of the 
proceeds of these bonds were used to supply deficient revenues, a con- 
siderable portion was required to maintain the gold reserve. 

With our revenues equal to our expenses, there would be no deficit 
requiring the issuance of bonds. But if the gold reserve falls below 
$100,000,000, how will it be replenished except by selling more bonds? 
Is there any other way practicable under existing law? The serious 
question then is, shall we continue the policy that has been pursued 
in the past; that is, when the gold reserve reaches the point of danger, 
issue more bonds and supply the needed gold, or shall we provide 
other means to prevent these recurring drains upon the gold reserve? 
If no further legislation is had and the policy of selling bonds is to 
be continued, then Congress should give the Secretary of the Treasury 
authority to sell bonds at long or short periods, bearing a less rate of 
interest than is now authorized by law. 

I earnestly recommend as soon as the receipts of the Government 
are quite sufficient to pay all the expenses of the Government, that 
when any of the United States notes are presented for redemption 
in gold and are redeemed in gold, such notes shall be kept and set 
apart, and only paid out in exchange for gold. This is an obvious 
duty. If the holder of the United States note prefers the gold and 
gets it from the Government, he should not receive back from the 
Government a United States note without paying gold in exchange 
for it. The reason for this is made all the more apparent when the 
Government issues an interest-bearing debt to provide gold for the 
redemption of United States notes — a noninterest-bearing debt. 
Surely it should not pay them out again except on demand and for 
gold. If they are put out in any other way, they may return again 
to be followed by another bond issue to redeem them — another in- 
terest-bearing debt to redeem a noninterest-bearing debt. 

I concur with the Secretary of the Treasury in his recommendation 



William McKinley. 617 

that National banks be allowed to issue notes to the face value of the 
bonds which they have deposited for circulation, and that the tax on 
circulating notes secured by deposit of such bonds be reduced to one- 
half of I per cent, per annum. I also join him in recommending that 
authority be given for the establishment of National banks with a 
minimum capital of $25,000. This will enable the smaller villages and 
agricultural regions of the country to be supplied with currency to 
meet their needs. 

I recommend that the issue of National bank notes be restricted to 
the denomination of $10 and upward. If the suggestions I have 
herein made shall have the approval of Congress, then I would recom- 
mend that National banks be required to redeem their notes in gold. 

By a special message dated the i6th day of June last (1897), I 
laid before the Senate a treaty signed that day by the plenipotentiaries 
of the United States and of the Republic of Hawaii, having for its pur- 
pose the incorporation of the Hawaiian Island as an integral part of 
the United States and under its sovereignty. The Senate having re- 
moved the injunction of secrecy, although the treaty is still pending 
before that body, the subject may be properly referred to in this 
message because the necessary action of the Congress is required to 
determine by legislation many details of the eventual union should 
the fact of-annexation be accomplished, as I believe it should be. 

While consistently disavowing from a very early period any ag- 
gressive policy of absorption in regard to the Hawaiian group, a long 
series of declarations through three-quarters of a century has pro- 
claimed the vital interest of the United States in the independent life 
of the islands and their intimate commercial dependence upon this 
country. At the same time it has been repeatedly asserted that in no 
event could the entity of Hawaiian statehood cease by the passage of 
the islands under the domination or influence of another power than 
the United States. Under these circumstances, the logic of events 
required that annexation, heretofore ofYered but declined, should in 
the ripeness of time come about as the natural result of the strength- 
ening ties that bind us to those islands, and be realized by the free will 
of the Hawaiian State. 

That treaty was unanimously ratified without amendment by the 
Senate and President of the Republic of Hawaii on the loth of Sep- 
tember last, and only awaits the favorable action of the American 
Senate to effect the complete absorption of the islands into the domain 
of the United States. What the conditions of such a union shall be. 



6i8 History of the United States. 

the political relaticn thereof to the United States, the character of the 
local administration, the quality and degree of the elective franchise 
of the inhabitants, the extension of the federal laws to the territory 
or the enactment of special laws to fit the peculiar condition thereof, 
the regulation if need be of the labor system therein, are all matters 
which the treaty has wisely relegated to the Congress. 

If the treaty is confirmed as every consideration of dignity and 
honor requires, the wisdom of Congress will see to it that, avoiding 
abrupt assimilation of elements perhaps hardly yet fitted to share in 
the highest franchises of citizenship, and having due regard to the 
geographical conditions, the most just provisions for self-rule in local 
matters with the largest political liberties as an integral part of our 
Nation will be accorded to the Hawaiians. No less is due to a people 
who, after nearly five years of demonstrated capacity to fulfill the obli- 
gations of self-governing statehood, come of their free will to merge 
their destinies in our body-politic. 

special message, may 17, 1897, recommending relief for 

destitute AMERICANS IN CUBA. 

Official information from our consuls (May 17, 1897), in Cuba, es- 
tablishes the fact that a large number of American citizens in the 
island are in a state of destitution, suffering for want of food and medi- 
cines. This applies particularly to the rural districts of the central 
and eastern parts. 

The agricultural classes have been forced from their farms into the 
nearest towns, where they are without work or money. The local 
authorities of the several towns, however kindly disposed, are unable 
to relieve the needs of their own people and are altogether powerless 
to help our citizens. 

The latest report of Consul-General Lee estimates six to eight hun- 
dred Americans are without means of support. I have assured him 
that provision would be made at once to relieve them. To that end I 
recommend that Congress make an appropriation of not less than 
$50,000, to be immediately available, for use under the direction of the 
Secretary of State. 

It is desirable that a part of the sum wdiich may be appropriated by 
Congress should, in the discretion of the Secretary of State, also be 
used for the transportation of American citizens who, desiring to re- 
turn to the United States, are without means to do so. 



William McKinley. 619 

SPECIAL MESSAGE ON THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MAINE. 

For some time prior to the visit of the " Maine " to Havana 
harbor, our consular representatives pointed out the advantages to 
flow from the visit of national ships to the Cuban waters, in accus- 
toming the people to the presence of our flag as the symbol of 
good will and of our ships in the fulfillment of the mission of protec- 
tion to American interests, even though no immediate need therefor 
might exist. 

Accordingly on the 24th of January last (1898), after conference with 
the Spanish minister in which the renewal of visits of our war vessels 
to Spanish waters was discussed and accepted, the peninsular authorities 
at Madrid and Havana were advised of the purpose of this Govern- 
ment to resume friendly naval visits at Cuban ports, and that in that 
view the " Maine " would forthwith call at the port of Havana. 

This announcement was received by the Spanish Government with 
appreciation of the friendly character of the visit of the " Maine," and 
with notification of intention to return the courtesy by sending Spanish 
ships to the principal ports of the United States. Meanwhile the 
" Maine " entered the port of Havana on the 25th of January, her 
arrival being marked with no special incident besides the exchange of 
customary salutes and ceremonial visits. 

The " Maine " continued in the harbor of Havana during the three 
weeks following her arrival. No appreciable excitement attended her 
stay; on the contrary, a feeling of relief and confidence followed the 
resumption of the long-interrupted friendly intercourse. So noticeable 
was this immediate effect of her visit that the consul-general strongly 
urged that the presence of our ships in Cuban waters should be kept 
up by retaining the " Maine " at Havana or, in the event of her recall, 
by sending another vessel there to take her place. 

At forty minutes past 9 in the evening of the 15th of February the 
" Maiire " was destroyed by an explosion, by which the entire forward 
part of the ship was utterly wrecked. In this catastrophe two officers 
and two hundred and sixty-four of her crew perished, tliose who were 
not killed outright by her explosion being penned between decks by 
the tangle of wreckage and drowned by the immediate sinking of the 
hull. 

Prompt assistance was rendered by the neighboring vessels anchored 
in the harbor, aid being especially given by the boats of the Spanish 
cruiser "Alfonso XH " and the Ward Line steamer " City of Wash- 



620 ■ History of the United States. 

ington," which lay not far distant. The wounded were generously 
cared for by the authorities of Havana, the hospitals being freely 
opened to them, while the earliest recovered bodies of the dead were 
interred by the municipality in a public cemetery in the city. Tributes 
of grief and sympathy were offered from all official quarters of the 
island. 

The appalling calamity fell upon the people of our country with 
crushing force, and for a brief time an intense excitement prevailed, 
which in a community less just and self-controlled than ours might 
have led to hasty acts of blind resentment. This spirit, however, soon 
gave way to the calmer processes of reason and to the resolve to inves- 
tigate the facts and await material proof before forming a judgment as 
to the cause, the responsibility, and, if the facts warranted, the remedy 
due. This course necessarily recommended itself from the outset to 
the Executive, for only in the light of a dispassionately ascertained 
certainty could it determine the nature and measure of its full duty in 
the matter. 

The usual procedure was followed, as in all cases of casualty or dis- 
aster to national vessels of any maritime State. A naval court of 
inquiry was at once organized, composed of officers well qualified by 
rank and practical experience to discharge the onerous duty imposed 
upon them. Aided by a strong force of wreckers and divers, the court 
proceeded to make a thorough investigation on the spot, employing 
every available means for the impartial and exact determination of the 
causes of the explosion. Its operations have been conducted with the 
utmost deliberation and judgment, and while independently pursued 
no attainable source of information was neglected, and the fullest op- 
portunity was allowed for a simultaneous investigation by the Spanish 
authorities. 

The finding of the court of mquiry was reached, after twenty-three 
days of continuous labor, on the 21st of March, instant, and, having 
been approved on the 22d by the commander-in-chief of the United 
States naval force on the North Atlantic Station, was transmitted to 
the Executive. 

Its purport is, in brief, as follows: 

When the " Maine " arrived at Havana she was conducted by the 
regular Government pilot to buoy No. 4, to which she was moored in 
from 5/^ to 6 fathoms of water. 

The state of discipline on board, and the condition of her magazines, 
boilers, coal bunkers, and storage compartments, are passed in review, 



William McKinley, 621 

with the conckision that excellent order prevailed, and that no indica- 
tion of any cause for an internal explosion existed in any quarter. 

At 8 o'clock in the evening of February 15th everything had been 
reported secure, and all was quiet. 

At forty minutes past 9 o'clock the vessel was suddenly destroyed. 

There were two distinct explosions, with a brief interval between 
them. 

The first lifted the forward part of the ship very perceptibly; the 
second, which was more open, prolonged, and of greater volume, is 
attributed by the court to the partial explosion of two or more of the 
forward magazines. 

The evidence of the divers establishes that the after part of the ship 
was practically intact and sank in that condition a very few moments 
after the explosion. The forward part was completely demolished. 

Upon the evidence of a concurrent external cause the finding of the 
court is as follows: 

At frame 17 the outer shell of the ship, from a point eleven and one-half feet 
from the middle line of the ship and six feet above the keel when in its normal 
position, has been forced up so as to be now about four feet above the surface 
of the water, therefore about thirty-four feet above where it would be had the 
ship sunk uninjured. 

The outside bottom plating is bent into reversed V-shape (A), the after 
wing of which, about fifteen feet broad and thirty-two feet in length, from 
frame 17 to frame 25, is doubled back upon itself against the continuation of 
the same plating, extending forward. 

At frame 18 the vertical keel is broken in two and the flat keel bent into an 
angle similar to the angle formed by the outside bottom plates. This break is 
now about six feet below the surface of the water and about thirty feet above its 
normal position. 

In the opinion of the court this efifect could have been produced only by the 
explosion of a mine situated under the bottom of the ship at about frame 18 
and somewhat on the port side of the shio 

The conclusions of the court are: 

That the loss of the " Maine " was not in any respect due to fault or 
negligence on the part of any of the officers or members of her crew; 

That the ship was destroyed by the explosion of a submarine mine, 
which caused the partial explosion of two or more of her forward 
magazines; and 



622 History of the United States. 

That no evidence has been obtainable fixing the responsibiUty for the 
destruction of the " Maine " upon any person or persons. 

I have directed that the finding- of the court of inquiry and the views 
of this Government thereon be communicated to the Government of 
Her Majesty the Queen Regent, and I do not permit myself to doubt 
that the sense of justice of the Spanish nation will dictate a course 
of action suggested by honor and the friendly relations of the two 
Governments. 

It will be the duty of the Executive to advise the Congress of the 
result, and in the meantime deliberate consideration is invoked, 

declaration of hostilities against SPAIN. 

Whereas (April 22, 1898), by a joint resolution passed by the Con- 
gress and approved April 20, 1898, and communicated to the Gov- 
ernment of Spain, it was demanded that said Government at once re- 
linquish its avithority and government in the Island of Cuba, and with- 
draw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters; and the 
President of the United States was directed and empowered to use the 
entire land and naval forces of the United States, and to call into the 
actual service of the United States the militia of the several States to 
such extent as might be necessary to carry said resolution into efifect; 
and 

Whereas, in carrying into efifect said resolution, the President of the 
United States deems it necessary to set on foot and maintain a blockade 
of the north coast of Cuba, including all ports on said coast between 
Cardenas and Bahia Honda and the port of Cienfuegos on the south 
coast of Cuba: 

Now, therefore, I, William McKinley, President of the United 
States, in order to enforce the said resolution, do hereby declare and 
proclaim that the United States of America have instituted and will 
maintain a blockade of the north coast of Cuba, including ports on 
said coast between Cardenas and Bahia Honda and the port of Cien- 
fuegos on the south coast of Cuba, aforesaid, in pursuance of the laws 
of the United States and the law of nations applicable to such cases. 
An efficient force will be posted so as to prevent the entrance and exit 
of vessels from the ports aforesaid. Any neutral vessel approaching 
any of said ports, or attempting to leave the same, without notice or 
knowledge of the establishment of such blockade, will be duly warned 
by the commander of the blockading forces, who will indorse on her 
register the fact, and the date, of such warning, where such indorse- 



William McKinley. 623 

ment was made ; and if the same vessel shall again attempt to enter any 
blockaded port, she will be captured and sent to the nearest convenient 
port for such proceedings against her and her cargo as prize, as may be 
deemed advisable. 

Neutral vessels lying in any of said ports at the time of the estan- 
lishment of such blockade will be allowed thirty days to issue there- 
from. 

Whereas a joint resolution (April 2Ty, 1898) of Congress was ap- 
proved on the 20th day of April, 1898, entitled "Joint resolution for 
the recognition of the independence of the people of Cuba, demanding 
that the Government of Spain relinquish its authority and govern- 
ment in the Island of Cuba, and to withdraw its land and naval forces 
from Cuba and Cuban waters, and directing the President of the 
United States to use the land and naval forces of the United States 
to carry these resolutions into effect;" and 

Whereas, by an act of Congress entitled " An act to provide for 
temporarily increasing the military establishment of the United States 
in time of war, and for other purposes," approved April 22, 1898; the 
President is authorized, in order to raise a volunteer army, to issue 
his proclamation calling for volunteers to serve in the Army of the 
United States; 

Now, therefore, I, William McKinley, President of the United 
States, by virtue of the power vested in me by the Constitution and 
the laws, and deeming sufficient occasion to exist, have thought fit to 
call forth and hereby do call forth, volunteers to the aggregate num- 
ber of 125,000, inorder to carry into effect the purpose of the said 
resolution; the same to be apportioned, as far as practicable, among 
the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia, ac- 
cording to population, and to serve for two years, unless sooner dis- 
charged. The details for this object will be immediately communicated 
to the proper authorities through the War Department. 

I transmit (April 25, 1898) to the Congress, for its consideration and 
appropriate action, copies of correspondence recently had with the 
representative of Spain in the United States, with the United States 
minister at Madrid, and through the latter with the Government of 
Spain, showing the action taken under the joint resolution approved 
April 20, 1898, " for the recognition of the independence of the people 
of Cuba, demanding that the Government of Spain relinquish its au- 
thority and government in the Island of Cuba, and to withdraw its 
land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters, and directing the 



624 History of the United States. 

President of the United States to use the land and naval forces of the 
United States to carry these resolutions into effect. 

Upon communicating to the Spanish minister in Washington the 
demand which it became the duty of the Executive to address to the 
Government of Spain in obedience to said resolution, the minister 
asked for his passports and withdrew. The United States minister at 
Madrid was in turn notified by the Spanish Minister for Foreign Af- 
fairs that the withdrawal of the Spanish representative from the United 
States had terminated diplomatic relations between the two countries, 
and that all official communications between their respective repie- 
sentatives ceased therewith. 

I commend to your especial attention the note addressed to the 
United States minister at Madrid by the Spanish Minister for Foreign 
Affairs on the 21st instant, whereby the foregoing notification was con- 
veyed. It will be perceived therefrom that the Government of Spain, 
having cognizance of the joint resolution of the United States Con- 
gress, and in view of the things which the President is thereby re- 
quired and authorized to do, responds by treating the reasonable de- 
mands of this Government as measures of hostility, following with 
that instant and complete severance of relations by its action, which 
by the usage of nations accompanies an existent state of war between 
sovereign powers. 

The position of Spain being thus made known and the demands of 
the United States being denied with a complete rupture of intercourse 
by the act of Spain, I have been constrained, in exercise of the powers 
and authority conferred upon me by the joint resolution afoesaid, to 
proclaim under date of April 22, 1898, a blockade of certain ports of 
the north coast of Cuba, lying between Cardenas and Bahia Honda 
and of the port of Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba; and further, 
in exercise of my constitutional powers and using the authority con- 
ferred upon me by the act of Congress approved April 22, 1898, to 
issue my proclamation, dated April 23, 1898, calling forth volunteers in 
order to carry into efifect the said resolution of April 20, 1898. Copies 
of these proclamations are hereto appended. 

In view of the measures so taken, and with a view to the adoption 
of such other measures as may be necessary to enable me to carry out 
the expressed will of the Congress of the United States in the premises, 
I now recommend to your honorable body the adoption of a joint reso- 
lution declaring that a state of war exists between the United States 
of America and the Kingdom of Spain, and I urge speedy action 



William McKinley. 625 

thereon, to the end that the definition of the international status of the 
United States as a belHgerent power may be made known, and the 
assertion of all its rights and the maintenance of all its duties in the 
conduct of a public war may be assured. 

On the 24th of April, 1898, I directed the Secretary of the Xavy to 
telegraph orders to Commodore George Dewey, of the United States 
Navy, commanding the Asiatic squadron, then lying in the port of 
Hongkong, to proceed forthwith to the Philippine Islands, there to 
commence operations and engage the assembled Spanish fleet. 

Promptly obeying that order, the United States squadron, consist- 
ing of the flagship " Olympia," " Baltimore," " Raleigh," " Boston," 
" Concord," and " Petrel," with the revenue cutter " McCulloch " 
as an auxiliary dispatch boat, entered the harbor of Manila at daybreak 
on the 1st of May and immediately engaged the entire Spanish fleet ot 
eleven ships, which were under the protection of the fire of the land 
forts. After a stubborn fight, in which the enemy suffered great loss, 
these vessels were destroyed or completely disabled and the water 
battery at Cavite silenced. Of our brave officers and men not one 
was lost and only eight injured, and those slightly. All of our ships 
escaped any serious damage. 

By the 4th of May Commodore Dewey had taken possession of the 
naval station at Cavite, destroying the fortifications there and at the 
entrance of the bay and paroling their garrisons. The waters of the 
bay are under his complete control. He has established hospitals 
within the American lines, where 250 of the Spanish sick and wounded 
are assisted and protected. 

The magnitude of this victory can hardly be measured by the ordi- 
nary standards of naval warfare. Outweighing any material advan- 
tage is the moral effect of this initial success. At this unsurpassed 
achievement the great heart of our nation throbs, not with boasting 
or with greed of conquest, but with deep gratitude that this triumph 
has come in a just cause, and that by the grace of God an effective step 
has thus been taken toward the attainment of the wished-for peace. 
To those whose skill, courage, and devotion have won the fight, to the 
gallant commander and the brave officers and men who aided him, our 
country owes an incalculable debt. 

Feeling as our people feel, and speaking in their name, I at once sent 
a message to Commodore Dewey, thanking him and his officers and 
men for their splendid achievement and overwhelming victory, and 
informing him that I had appointed him an Acting Rear Admiral. 



626 History of the United States. 

I now (May 9, 1898) recommend that, following our national pre- 
cedents and expressing the fervent gratitude of every patriotic heart, 
the thanks of Congress be given Acting Real Admiral George Dewey, 
of the United States Navy, for highly distinguished conduct in con- 
flict with the enemy, and to the of^cers and men under his command 
for their gallantry in the destruction of the enemy's fleet and the cap- 
ture of the enemy's fortifications in the bay of Manila. 

SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 5, 1898. 

Notwithstanding the added burdens rendered necessary by the war 
our people rejoice in a very satisfactory and steadily increasing de- 
gree of prosperity evidenced by the largest volume of business ever 
recorded. Manufacture has been productive, agricultural pursuits 
have yielded abundant returns, labor in all fields of industry is better 
rewarded, revenue legislation passed by the present Congress has in- 
creased the Treasury's receipts to the amount estimated by its authors; 
the finances of the Government have been successfully administered 
and its credit advanced to the first rank; while its currency has been 
maintained at the world's highest standard. Military service ^uider 
a common flag and for a righteous cause has strengthened the National 
spirit and served to cement more closely than ever the traternai bonds 
between every section of the country. 

A review of the relation of the United States to other powers, 
always appropriate, is this year of primary importance in view of 
the momentous issues which have arisen, demanding in one instance 
the ultimate determination by arms and involving far-reaching con- 
sequences which will require the earnest attention of the Congress. 

In my last annual message very full consideration was given to 
the question of the duty of the Government of the United States 
toward Spain and the Cuban insurrection as being by far the most 
important problem with which we were then called upon to deal, 
fhe considerations then advanced, and the exposition of the views 
therein expressed, disclosed my sense of the extreme gravity of the 
situation. Setting aside, as logically unfounded or practically inad- 
missible, the recognition of the Cuban insurgents as belligerents, 
the recognition of the independence of Cuba, neutral intervention 
to end the war by imposing a rational compromise between the con- 
testants, intervention in favor of one or the other party, and forcible 
annexation of the island, I concluded it was honestly due to our 



- be, and he betthy is. 
■ lava! forces of the United 
id States the tuilitia of the 



.^. 



PRESIDENT McKINLEVS DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST 

SPAIN. 



William McKinley. 629 

friendly relations with bpain that she should be given a reasonable 
chance to realize her expectations of rctorni to which she had become 
irrevocably committed. Within a few weeks previously she had an- 
nounced comprehensive plans which it was confidently asserted would 
be efBcacious to remedy the evils so deeply affecting our own country, 
so injurious to the true interests of the mother country as well as to 
those of Cuba, and so repugnant to the universal sentiment of hu- 
manity. 

The ensuhig month brought little sign of real progress toward the 
pacification of Cuba. The autonomous administrations set up in the 
capital and some of tne prmcipal cities appeared not to gam the favor 
of the inhabitants nor to be able to extend their influence to the large 
extent of territory held by the insurgents, while the military arm, 
obviously unable to cope with the still active rebellion, continued 
many of the most objectionable and offensive policies of the govern- 
ment that had preceded it. No tangible relief was afforded the vast 
numbers of unhappy reconcentrados despite the reiterated professions 
made in that regard and the amount appropriated by Spain to that 
end. The proffered expedient of zones of cdltivation proved illusory; 
indeed no less practical nor more delusive promises of succor could 
well have been tendered to the exhausted and destitute people, stripped 
of all that made life and home dear and herded in a strange region 
among unsympathetic strangers hardly less necessitous than them- 
selves. 

By the end of December the mortality among them had fright- 
fully increased. Conservative estimates from Spanish sources placed 
the deaths among these distressed people at over 40 per cent, from 
the time General Weyler's decree of reconcentration was enforced. 
With the acquiescence of the Spanish authorities a scheme was adopted 
for relief by charitable contributions raised in this country and dis- 
tributed, under the direction of the consul-general and the several con- 
suls, by noble and earnest individual effort through the organized 
agencies of the American Red Cross. Thousands of lives were thus 
saved, but many thousands more were inaccessible to such forms of 
aid. 

The war continued on the old footing without comprehensive plan, 
developing only the same spasmodic encounters, barren of strategic 
result, that had marked the course of the earlier ten years' rebellion 
as well as the present insurrection from its start. No alternative save 
physical exhaustion of either combatant, and therewithal the practical 



630 History of the United States. 

ruin of the island, lay in sight, but how far distant no one could venture 
conjecture. 

At this juncture, on the 15th of February last, occurred the destruc- 
tion of the battleship " Maine " while rightfully lying in the harbor of 
Havana on a mission of international courtesy and good will — a 
catastrophe the suspicious nature and horror of which stirred the na- 
tion's heart profoundly. It is a striking evidence of the poise and 
sturdy good sense distinguishing our national character that this 
shocking blow, falling upon a generous people, already deeply touched 
by preceding events in Cuba, did not move them to an instant, des- 
perate resolve to tolerate no longer the existence of a condition of 
danger and disorder at our doors that made possible such a deed, by 
whomsoever wrought. Yet the instinct of justice prevailed and the 
nation anxiously awaited the result of the searching investigation at 
once set on foot. The finding of the naval board of inquiry established 
that the origin of the explosion was external by a submarine mine, and 
only halted, through lack of positive testimony, to fix the responsibility 
of its authorship. 

All these things carried conviction to the most thoughtful, even 
before the finding of the naval court, that a crisis in our relations 
with Spain and toward Cuba was at hand. So strong was this belief 
that it needed but a brief Executive suggestion to the Congress to 
receive immediate answer to the duty of making instant provision for 
the possible and perhaps speedily probable emergency of war, and the 
remarkable, almost unique, spectacle was presented of a unanimous 
vote of both Houses, on the 9th of March, 1898, appropriating 
$50,000,000 " for the national defense and for each and every purpose 
connected therewith, to be expended at the discretion of the Presi- 
dent." That this act of provision came none too soon was disclosed 
when the application of the fund was undertaken. Our coasts were 
practically undefended. Our Navy needed large provision for in- 
creased ammunition and supplies, and even numbers to cope with 
any sudden attack from the Navy of Spain, which comprised modern 
vessels of the highest type of continental perfection. Our Army also 
required enlargement of men and munitions. The details of the 
hurried preparation for the dreaded contingency is told in the reports 
of the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, and need not be repeated 
here. It is sufificient to say that the outbreak of war, when it did 
come, found our nation not unprepared to meet the conflict. 

Nor was the apprehension of coming strife confined to our own 



William McKinley. 631 

country. It was felt by the continental powers, which, on April 6, 
1898, through their ambassadors and envoys, addressed to the Execu- 
tive an expression of hope that humanity and moderation might mark 
the course of this Government and people, and that further negotia- 
tions would lead to an agreement which, while securing the main- 
tenance of peace, would afford all necessary guarantees for the re- 
establishment of order in Cuba. In responding to that representa- 
tion, I said I shared the hope the envoys had expressed that peace 
might be preserved in a manner to terminate the chronic condition of 
disturbance in Cuba so injurious and menacing to our interests and 
tranquillity, as well as shocking to our sentiments of humanity; and, 
while appreciating the humanitarian and disinterested character of 
the communication they had made on behalf of the powers, I stated 
the confidence of this Government, for its part, that equal appreciation 
would be shown for its own earnest and unselfish endeavors to fulfill 
a duty to humanity by ending a situation the infinite prolongation of 
which had become insufferable. 

Still animated by the hope of a peaceful solution and obeying 
the dictates of duty, no effort was relaxed to bring about a speedy 
ending of the Cuban struggle. Negotiations to this object continued 
actively with the Government of Spain, looking to the immediate con- 
clusion of a six months' armistice in Cuba, with a view to effect the 
recognition of her people's right to independence. Besides this, the 
instant revocation of the order of reconcentration was asked, so that 
the sufferers, returning to their homes and aided by united American 
and Spanish effort, might be put in a way to support themselves, and, 
by orderly resumption of the well-nigh destroyed productive energies 
of the island, contribute to the restoration of its tranquillity and well- 
being. 

Negotiations continued for some little time at Madrid, resulting 
in offers by the Spanish Government which could not but be regarded 
as inadequate. It was proposed to confide the preparation of peace 
to the insular parliament, yet to be convened under the autonomous 
decrees of November, 1897, but without impairment in anywise of 
the constitutional powers of the Madrid Government, which, to that 
end, would grant an armistice, if solicited by the insurgents, for such 
time as the general-in-chief might see fit to fix. How and with what 
scope of discretionary powers the insular parliament was expected 
to set about the " preparation " of peace did not appear. If it were 
to be by negotiation with the insurgents, the issue seemed to rest on 



632 History of the United States. 

the one side with a body chosen by a fraction of the electors in the 
(hstricts under Spanish control, and on the other with the insurgent 
population holding the interior country, unrepresented in the so-called 
parliament, and defiant at the suggestion of suing for peace. 

Grieved and disappointed at this barren outcome of my sincere 
endeavors to reach a practicable solution, I felt it my duty to remit 
the whole question to the Congress. In the message of April 11, 
1898, I announced that with this last overture in the direction of 
immediate peace in Cuba, and its disappointing reception by Spain, 
the effort of the Executive was brought to an end. I again reviewed 
the alternative courses of action which had been proposed, concluding 
that the only one consonant with international policy and compatible 
with our firm-set historical traditions was intervention as a neutral 
to stop the war and check the hopeless sacrifice of life, even though 
that resort involved " hostile constraint upon both the parties to the 
contest, as well to enforce a truce as to guide the eventual settlement." 
The grounds justifying that step were, the interests of humanity; the 
duty to protect the life and property of our citizens in Cuba; the right 
to check injury to our commerce and people through the devastation 
of the island, and, most important, the need of removing at once and 
forever the constant menace and the burdens entailed upon our Gov- 
ernment by the uncertainties and perils of the situation cau,sed by the 
unendurable disturbance in Cuba. I said: 

The long trial has proved that the object for which Spain has waged the war 
can not be attained. The fire of insurrection may flame or may smolder with 
varying seasons, but it has not been, and it is plain that it can not be, ex- 
tinguished by present methods. The only hope of relief and repose from a con- 
dition which can no longer be endured is the enforced pacification of Cuba. 
In the name of humanity, in the name of civilization, in behalf of endangered 
American interests which give us the right and the duty to speak and to act, 
the war in Cuba must stop. 

In view of all this, the Congress was asked to authorize and em- 
power the President to take measures to secure a full and final ter- 
mination of hostilities between Spain and the people of Cuba and to 
secure in the island the establishment of a stable government, capable 
of maintaining order and observing its international obligations, in- 
suring peace and tranquillity, and the security of its citizens as well 
as ovn- own, and for the accomplishment of those ends to use the mili- 
tary find naval forces of the United States as mig^ht be necessary; 



\ 



William McKinley. 633 

with added authority to continue generous reUcf to the starving people 
of Cuba. 

The response of the Congress, after nine days of earnest deHbera- 
tion, during which the ahiiost unanimous sentiment of that body was 
developed on every point save as to the expediency of coupling the 
proposed action with a formal recognition of the Republic of Cuba 
as the true and lawful government of that island — a proposition which 
failed of adoption — the Congress, after conference, on the 19th of 
April, 1898, by a vote of 42 to 35 in the Senate and 311 to 6 in the 
House of Representatives, passed the memorable joint resolution de- 
claring: 

First. That the people of the island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, 
free and independent. 

Second. That it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the Govern- 
ment of the United States does hereby demand, that the Government of Spain 
at once relinquish its authority and government in the island of Cuba and 
withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters. 

Third. That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed 
and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States, 
and to call into the actual service of the United States the militia of the several 
States, to such extent as may be necessary to carry these resolutions into efYect. 

Fourth. That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention 
to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island except for the 
pacification thereof, and asserts its determination when that is accomplished to 
leave the government and control of the island to its people. 

This resolution was approved by the Executive on the next day, 
April 20th. A copy was at once communicated to the Spanish min- 
ister at this capital, who forthwith announced that his continuance in 
Washington had thereby become impossible, and asked for his pass- 
ports, which were given him. He thereupon withdrew from Wash- 
ington, leaving the protection of Spanish interests in the United States 
to the French anil)assador and the Austro-Hungarian minister. Sim- 
ultaneously with its communication to the Spanish minister here, 
General Woodford, the American minister at Madrid, was telegraphed 
confirmation of the text of the joint resolution and directed to com- 
municate it to the Government of Spain with the formal demand 
that it at once relinquish its authority and goverenment in the Island 
of Cuba and withdraw its forces therefrom, coupling this demand 
with annotmcement of the intentions of this Government as to the 



634 History of the United States. 

future of the island, in conformity with the fourth clause of the resolu- 
tion, and giving Spain until noon of April 23d to reply. 

That demand, although, as above shown, officially made known to 
the Spanish envoy here, was not delivered at Madrid. After the 
instruction reached General Woodford on the morning of April 21st, 
but before he could present it, the Spanish Minister of State noti- 
fied him that upon the President's approval of the joint resolution 
the Madrid Government, regarding the act as " equivalent to an evi- 
dent declaration of war," had ordered its minister in Washington to 
withdraw, thereby breaking off diplomatic relations between the two 
countries and ceasing all official communication between their respec- 
tive representatives. General Woodford thereupon demanded his 
passports and quitted Madrid the same day. 

Spain having thus denied the demand of the United States and 
initiated that complete form of rupture of relations which attends 
a state of war, the Executive powers authorized by the resolution 
were at once used by me to meet the enlarged contingency of actual 
war between sovereign states. On April 22d I proclaimed a block- 
ade of the north coast of Cuba, including ports on said coast between 
Cardenas and Bahia Honda and the port of Cienfuegos on the south 
coast of Cuba; and on the 23d I called for volunteers to execute the 
purpose of the resolution. By my message of April 25th the Con- 
gress was informed of the situation, and I recommended formal decla- 
ration of the existence of a state of war between the United States and 
Spain. The Congress accordingly voted on the same day the act 
approved April 25, 1898, declaring the existence of such war from 
and including the 21st day of April, and re-enacted the provision 
of the resolution of April 20th, directing the President to use all the 
armed forces of the nation to carry that act into effect. Due notifi- 
cation of the existence of war as aforesaid was given April 25th by 
telegraph to all governments with which the United States maintain 
relations, in order that their neutrality might be assured during the 
war. The various governments responded with proclamations of 
neutrality, each after its own methods. It is not among the least 
gratifying incidents of the struggle that the obligations of neutrality 
were impartially discharged by all, often under delicate and difficult 
circumstances. 

In further fulfillment of international duty I issued, April 26, 1898, 
a proclamation announcing the treatment proposed to be accorded to 
vessels and their cargoes as to blockade, contraband, the exercise of 



William McKinley. 635 

the right of search, and the immunity of neutral flags and neutral 
goods under enemy's flag. A similar proclamation was made by 
the Spanish Government. In the conduct of hostilities the rules of 
the Declaration of Paris, including abstention from resort to privateer- 
ing, have accordingly been observed by both belligerents, although 
neither was a party to that declaration. 

Our country thus, after an interval of half a century of peace with 
all nations, found itself engaged in deadly conflict with a foreign 
enemy. Every nerve was strained to meet the emergency. The re- 
sponse to the initial call for 125,000 volunteers was instant and com- 
plete, as was also the result of the second call of May 25th for 75,000 
additional volunteers. The ranks of the Regular Army were in- 
creased to the limits provided by the act of April 26, 1898. 

The enlisted force of the Navy on the 15th day of August, when 
it reached its maximum, numbered 24,123 men and apprentices. One 
hundred and three vessels were added to the Navy by purchase, one 
was presented to the Government, one leased, and the four vessels of 
the International Navigation Company, the St. Paul, St. Louis, New 
York, and Paris, were chartered. In addition to these the revenue 
cutters and light-house tenders were turned over to the Navy Depart- 
ment and became temporarily a part of the auxiliary navy. 

The maximum efifective lighting force of the Navy during the war, 
separated into classes, was as follows: 

Four battle ships of the first class; i battle ship of the second class; 
2 armored cruisers; 6 coast defense monitors; i armored ram; 12 
protected cruisers; 3 unprotected cruisers; 18 gunboats; i dynamite 
cruiser; 11 torpedo boats; vessels of the old Navy, including moni- 
tors, 14. Auxiliary Navy: 11 auxiliary cruisers; 28 converted 
yachts; 2^ converted tugs; 19 converted colliers; 15 revenue cutters; 
4 lighthouse tenders, and 19 miscellaneous vessels. 

Much alarm was felt along our entire Atlantic seaboard lest some 
attack might be made by the enemy. Every pracaution was taken 
to prevent possible injury to our great cities lying along the coast. 
Temporary garrisons were provided, drawn from the State militia; 
infantry and light batteries were drawn from the volunteer force. 
About 12,000 troops were thus employed. The coast signal service 
was established for observing the approach of an enemy's ships to 
the coast of the United States, and the Life Saving and Lighthouse 
Services co-operated, which enabled the Navy Department to have 
all portions of the Atlantic coast, from Maine to Texas, under ob- 
servation. 



636 History of the United States. 

The auxiliary navy was created under the authority of Congress 
and was officered and manned by the Naval Militia of the several 
States. This organization patrolled the coast, and performed the 
duty of a second line of defense. 

Under the direction of the Chief of Engineers submarine mines 
were placed at the most exposed points. Before the outbreak of 
the war permanent mining casemates and cable galleries had been 
constructed at nearly all important harbors. Most of the torpedo 
material was not to be found in the market, and had to be specially 
manufactured. Under date of April 19th, district officers were directed 
to take all preliminary measures, short of the actual attaching of 
the loaded mines to the cables, and on April 226. telegraphic orders 
were issued to place the loaded mines in position. 

The aggregate number of mines placed was 1,535, ''.t the principal 
harbors from Maine to California. Preparations were also made for 
the planting of mines at certain other harbors, but owing to the 
early destruction of the Spanish fleet these mines were not placed. 

The Signal Corps was promptly organized, and performed service 
of the most difficult and important character. Its operations dur- 
ing the war covered the electrical connection of all coast fortifica- 
tions, the establishment of telephonic and telegraphic facilities for 
the camps at Manila, Santiago, and in Porto Rico. There were 
constructed 300 miles of line at ten great camps, thus facilitating 
military movements from those points in a manner heretofore un- 
known in military administration. Field telegraph lines were estab- 
lished and maintained under the enemy's fire at Manila, and later the 
Manila-Hongkong cable was reopened. 

In Porto Rico cable communications were opened over a discon- 
tinued route, and on land the headquarters of the commanding officer 
was kept in telegraphic or telephonic communication with the division 
commanders on four different lines of operations. 

There was placed in Cuban waters a completely outfitted cable 
ship, with war cables and cable gear, suitable both for the destruction 
of comnumications belonging to the enemy and the establishment of 
our own. Two ocean cables were destroyed under the enemy's bat- 
teries at Santiago. The day previous to the landing of General Shafter's 
corps at Caimanera, within twenty miles of the landing place, cable 
communications were established and a cable station opened, giving 
direct communication with the Government at Washington. This 
service was invaluable to the Executive in directing the operations of 



William McKinley. 637 

the Army and Navy. With a total force of over 1,300 the loss was by 
disease in camp and field, officers and men included, only five. 

The National Defense Fund of $50,000,000 was expended in large, 
part by the Army and Navy, and the objects for which it was used 
are fully shown in the reports of the several Secretaries. It was a 
most timely appropriation, enabling the Government to strengthen 
its defenses and make preparations greatly needed in case of war. 

This fund being inadequate to the requirements of equipment and 
for the conduct of the war, the patriotism of the Congress provided 
the means in the war revenue act of June 13th by authorizing a 3 
per cent, popular loan not to exceed $400,000,000, and by levying ad- 
ditional imposts and taxes. Of the authorized loan, $200,000,000 
were offered and promptly taken, the subscriptions so far exceeding 
the call as to cover it many times over, while, preference being given 
to the smaller bids, no single allotment exceeded $5,000. Tliis was a 
most encouraging and significant result, showing the vast resources 
of the Nation and the determination of the people to uphold their 
country's honor. 

It is not within the province of this message to narrate the history 
of the extraordinary war that followed the Spanish declaration of 
April 2 1 St, but a brief recital of its more salient features is appro- 
priate. 

The first encounter of the war in point of date took place April 
27th, when a detachment of the blockading squadron made a recon- 
noissance in force at Matanzas, shelled the harbor forts, and demol- 
ished several new works in construction. 

The next engagement was destined to mark a memorable epoch 
in maritime warfare. The Pacific fleet, under Commodore George 
Dewey, had lain for some weeks at Hongkong. Upon the colonial 
proclamation of neutrality being issued and the customary twenty- 
four hours' notice being given, it repaired to Mirs Bay, near Hong- 
kong, whence it proceeded to the Philippine Islands under tele- 
graphed orders to capture or destroy the formidable Spanish fleet 
then assembled at Manila. At daybreak on the ist of May the 
American force entered Manila Bay and after a few hours' engage- 
ment effected the total destruction of the Spanish fleet, consisting 
of ten warships and a transport, besides capturing the naval station 
and forts at Cavite, thus annihilating the Spanish naval power in 
the Pacific Ocean and completely controlling the Bay of Manila, with 
the abilitv to take tlic city at will. Not a life was lost on our ships, the 



638 History of the United States. 

wounded only numbering seven, while not a vessel was materially in- 
jured. For this gallant achievement the Congress, upon my recom- 
mendation, fitly bestowed upon the actors preferment and substantial 
reward. 

The effect of this remarkable victory upon the spirit of our people 
and upon the fortunes of the war was instant. A prestige of invin- 
cibility thereby attached to our arms, which continued throughout the 
struggle. Reinforcements were hurried to Manila under the command 
of Major-General Merritt and firmly established within sight of the 
capital, which lay helpless before our guns. 

On the 7th day of May the Government was advised officially of the 
victory at Manila, and at once inquired of the commander of our fleet 
what troops would be required. The information was received on the 
15th day of May, and the first army expedition sailed May 25th and 
arrived off Manila June 30th. Other expeditions soon followed, the 
total force consisting of 641 officers and 15,058 enlisted men. 

Only reluctance to cause needless loss of life and property pre- 
vented the early storming and capture of the city, and therewith the 
absolute military occupancy of the whole group. The insurgents mean- 
while had resumed the active hostilities suspended by the uncompleted 
truce of December, 1897. Their forces invested Manila from the 
northern and eastern side, but were constrained by Admiral Dewey 
and General Merritt from attempting an assault. It was fitting that 
whatever was to be done in the way of decisive operations in that 
quarter should be accomplished by the strong arm of the United 
States alone. Obeying the stern precept of war which enjoins the 
overcoming of the adversary and the extinction of his power wherever 
assailable as the speedy and sure means to win a peace, divided 
victory was not permissible, for no partition of the rights and re- 
sponsibilities attending the enforcement of a just and advantageous 
peace could be thought of. 

Following the comprehensive scheme of general attack, powerful 
forces were assembled at various points on our coast to invade Cuba 
and Porto Rico. Meanwhile naval demonstrations were made at sev- 
eral exposed points. On May nth the cruiser "Wilmington" and 
torpedo boat " Winslow " were successful in an attempt to silence 
the batteries at Cardenas, a gallant ensign. Worth Bagley, and four 
seamen falling. These grievous fatalities were strangely enough 
among the very few which occurred during our naval operations m 
this extraordinary conflict. 



William McKinley. 639 

Meanwhile the Spanish naval preparations had been pushed with 
great vigor. A powerful squadron under Admiral Ccrvcra, which had 
assembled at the Cape Verde Islands before the outbreak of hostilities, 
had crossed the ocean, and by its erratic movements in the Caribbean 
Sea delayed our military plans while baffling the pursuit of our fleets. 
For a time fears were felt lest the " Oregon " and " Marietta," then 
nearing home after their long voyage from San Francisco of over 
15,000 miles, might be surprised by Admiral Cervera's fleet, but their 
fortunate arrival dispelled these apprehensions and lent much needed 
reinforcement. Not until Admiral Cervera took refuge in the harbor 
of Santiago de Cuba, about May 19th, was it practicable to plan a 
systematic naval and military attack upon the Antillean possessions of 
Spain. 

Several demonstrations occurred on the coasts of Cuba and Porto 
Rico in preparation for the larger event. On May 13, 1898, the North 
Atlantic Squadron shelled San Juan de Porto Rico. On May 30th 
Commodore Schley's squadron bombarded the forts guarding the 
mouth of Santiago harbor. Neither attack had any material result. 
It was evident that well-ordered land operations were indispensable 
to achieve a decisive advantage. 

The next act in the war thrilled not alone the hearts of our country- 
men but the world by its exceptional heroism. On the night of June 
3, 1898, Lieutenant Hobson, aided by seven devoted volunteers, 
blocked the narrow outlet from Santiago harbor by sinking the collier 
" Merrimac " in the channel, under a fierce fire from the shore bat- 
teries, escaping with their lives as by a miracle, but falling into the 
hands of the Spaniards. It is a most gratifying incident of the war 
that the bravery of this little band of heroes was cordially appreciated 
by the Spanish admiral, who sent a flag of truce to notify Admiral 
Sampson of their safety and to compliment them on their daring act. 
They were subsequently exchanged July 7, 1898. 

By June 7, 1898, the cutting of the last Cuban cable isolated the 
island. Thereafter the invasion was vigorously prosecuted. On June 
loth, under a heavy protecting fire, a landing of 600 marines from 
the " Oregon," " Marblehead," and " Yankee " was effected in Guan- 
tanamo Bay, where it had been determined to establish a naval station. 

This important and essential port was taken from the enemy after 
severe fighting by the marines, who were the first organized force of 
the United States to land in Cuba. 

The position so won was held despite desperate attempts to dislodge 



640 History of the United States. 

our forces. By June i6th additional forces were landed and strongly 
intrenched. On June 22d the advance of the invading army under 
Major-General Shafter landed at Daiquiri, about fifteen miles east of 
Santiago. This was accomplished under great difficulties but with 
marvelous dispatch. On June 23d the movement against Santiago 
was begun. On the 24th the first serious engagement took place, in 
which the First and Tenth Cavalry and the First United States 
Volunteer Cavalry, General Young's brigade of General Wheeler's 
division, participated, losing heavily. By nightfall, however, ground 
within five miles of Santiago was won. The advantage was steadily 
increased. On July ist a severe battle took place, our forces gaining 
the outworks of Santiago; on the 2d El Caney and San Juan were 
taken after a desperate charge, and the investment of the city was 
completed. The Navy co-operated by shelling the town and the 
coast forts. 

On the day following this ^-illiant achievement of our land forces, 
the 3d of July, occurred the decisive naval combat of the war. The 
Spanish fleet, attempting to leave the harbor, was met by the American 
squadron under command of Commodore Sampson. In less than 
three hours all the Spanish ships were destroyed, the two torpedo 
boats being sunk, and the " Maria Teresa," "Almirante Oquendo," 
" Vizcaya," and " Cristobal Colon " driven ashore. The Spanish 
admiral and over 1,300 men were taken prisoners, while the enemy's 
loss of life was deplorably large, some 600 perishing. On our side 
but one man was killed, on the " Brooklyn," and one man seriously 
wounded. Although our ships were repeatedly struck, not one was 
seriously injured. Where all so conspicuously distinguished them- 
selves, from the commanders to the gunners and the unnamed heroes 
in the boiler-rooms, each and all contributing toward the achievement 
of this astounding victory, for which neither ancient nor modern his- 
tory alifords a parallel in the completeness of the event and the 
marvelous disproportion of casualties, it would be invidious to single 
out any for especial honor. Deserved promotion has rewarded the 
more conspicuous actors — the Nation's profoundest gratitude is due 
to all of these brave men who by their skill and devotion in a few 
short hours crushed the sea power of Spain and wrought a triumph 
whose decisiveness and far-reaching consequences can scarcely be 
measured. Nor can we be unmindful of the achievements of our 
builders, mechanics, and artisans for their skill in the construction of 
our warships. 



William McKinley. 641 

With the catastrophe of Santiago Spain's effort upon the ocean 
virtually ceased. A spasmodic effort toward the end of June to send 
her Mediterranean fleet under Admiral Camara to relieve Manila was 
abandoned, the expedition being recalled after it had passed through 
the Suez Canal. 

The capitulation of Santiago followed. The city was closely be- 
sieged by land, while the entrance of our ships into the harbor cut 
off all relief on that side. After a truce to allow of the removal of 
noncombatants protracted negotiations continued from July 3 until 
July 15, 1898, when, under menace of inunediate assault, the pre- 
liminaries of surrender were agreed upon. On the 17th General 
Shafter occupied the city. The capitulation embraced the entire 
eastern end of Cuba. The number of Spanish soldiers surrendering 
was 22,000, all of whom were subsequently conveyed to Spain at the 
charge of the United States. The story of this successful campaign 
is told in the report of the Secretary of War, which will be laid before 
you. The individual valor of officers and soldiers was never more 
strikingly shown than in the several engagements leading to the sur- 
render of Santiago, while the prompt movements and successive 
victories won instant and universal applause. To those who gained 
this complete triumph, which established the ascendency of the 
United States upon land as the fight off Santiago had fixed our 
supremacy on the seas, the earnest and lasting gratitude of the Nation 
is unsparingly due. Nor should we alone remember the gallantry of 
the living; the dead claim our tears, and our losses by battle and 
disease must cloud any exultation at the result and teach us to weigh 
the awful cost of war, however rightful the cause or signal the victory. 

With the fall of Santiago the occupation of Porto Rico became the 
next strategic necessity. General Miles had previously been assigned 
to organize an expedition for that purpose. Fortunately he was 
already at Santiago, where he had arrived on the nth of July with 
reinforcements for General Shafter's army. 

With these troops, consisting of 3,415 infantry and artillery, two 
companies of engineers, and one company of the Signal Corps, Gen- 
eral Miles left Guantanamo on July 21st, having nine transports con- 
voyed by the fleet under Captain Higginson with the " Massachusetts " 
flagship, " Dixie," " Gloucester," " Columbia," and " Yale," the two 
latter carrying troops. The expedition landed at Guanica July 25tli, 
which port was entered with little opposition. Here the fleet was 
joined by the "Annapolis " and the " Wasp," while the " Puritan " 



642 History of the United States. 

and "Amphitrite " went to San Juan and joined the " New Orleans," 
which was engaged in blockading that port. The Major-General Com- 
manding was subsequently reinforced by General Schwan's brigade 
of the Third Army Corps, by General Wilson with a part of his 
division, and also by General Brooke with a part of his corps, num- 
bering in all 16,973 officers and men. 

On July 27th he entered Ponce, one of the most important ports in 
the island, from which he thereafter directed operations for the capture 
of the island. 

With the exception of the encounters with the enemy at Guayama, 
Hormigueros, Coamo, and Yauco, and an attack on a force landed at 
Cape San Juan, there was no serious resistance. The campaign was 
prosecuted with great vigor, and by the 12th of August much of the 
island was in our possession and the acquisition of the remainder was 
only a matter of a short time. At most of the points in the island our 
troops were enthusiastically welcomed. Protestations of loyalty to the 
flag and gratitude for delivery from Spanish rule met our commanders 
at every stage. As a potent influence toward peace the outcome of 
the Porto Rican expedition was of great consequence and generous 
commendation is due to those who participated in i'l 

The last scene of the war was enacted at Manila, its starting place. 
On August 15, 1898, after a brief assault upon the works by the land 
forces, in which the squadron assisted, the capital surrendered uncon- 
ditionally. The casualties were comparatively few. By this the con- 
quest of the Philippine Islands, virtually accomplished when the 
Spanish capacity for resistance was destroyed by Admiral Dewey's 
victory of the ist of May, was formally sealed. To General Merritt, 
his ofiticers and men for their uncomplaining and devoted service and 
for their gallantry in action the Nation is sincerely grateful. Their 
long voyage was made with singular success, and the soldierly conduct 
of the men, most of whom were without previous experience in the 
military service, deserves unmeasured praise. 

The total casualties in killed and wounded in the Army during the 
war with Spain were: Officers killed, 23; enlisted men killed, 257; 
total, 280; officers wounded, 113; enlisted men wounded, 1,464; total, 
1,577. Of the Navy: Killed, 17; wounded, 67; died as result of 
wounds, i; invalided from service, 6; total, 91. 

It will be observed that while our Navy was engaged in two great 
battles and in numerous perilous undertakings in blockade and bom- 
bardment, and more than 50,000 of our troops were transported to 



William McKinley. 643 

distant lands and were engaged in assault and siege and battle and 
many skirmishes in unfamiliar territory, we lost in both arms of the 
service a total of 1,668 killed and wounded; and in the entire campaign 
by land and sea we did not lose a gun or a flag or a transport or a sliip, 
and with the exception of the crew of the " Merrimac " not a soldier or 
sailor was taken prisoner. 

On August 7th, forty-six days from the date of the landing of 
General Shafter's army in Cuba and twenty-one days from the sur- 
render of Santiago, the United States troops commenced embarkation 
for home, and our entire force was returned to the United States as 
early as August 24th. They were absent from the United States only 
two months. 

It is fitting that I should bear testimony to the patriotism and 
devotion of that large portion of our Army which, although eager to 
be ordered to the post of greatest exposure, fortunately was not re- 
quired outside of the United States. They did their whole duty, and 
like their comrades at the front have earned the gratitude of the 
Nation. In like manner, the officers and men of the Army and of the 
Navy who remained in their departments and stations faithfully per- 
forming most important duties connected with the war, and whose 
requests for assignment in the field and at sea I was compelled to 
refuse because their services were indispensable here, are entitled to 
the highest commendation. It is my regret that there seems to be no 
provision for their suitable recognition. 

In this connection it is a pleasure for me to mention in terms of 
cordial appreciation the timely and useful work of the American 
National Red Cross both in relief measures preparatory to the 
campaigns, in sanitary assistance at several of the camps of assem- 
blage, and later, under the able and experienced leadership of the 
president of the society, Miss Clara Barton, on the fields of battle 
and in the hospitals at the front in Cuba. Working in conjunction 
with the governmental authorities and under their sanction and ap- 
proval, and with the enthusiastic co-operation of many patriotic 
women and societies in the various States, the Red Cross has fully 
maintained its already high reputation for intense earnestness and 
ability to exercise the noble purpose of its international organization, 
thus justifying the confidence and support which it has received at the 
hands of the American people. To the members and officers of this 
society and all who aided them in their philanthropic work, the sincere 
and lasting gratitude of the soldiers and the public is due and is freely 
accorded. 



644 History of the United States. ' 

In tracing these events we are constantly reminded of our obliga- 
tions to the Divine Master for His watchful care over us and His safe 
guidance, for which the Nation makes reverent acknowledgment and 
offers humble prayer for the continuance of His favor. 

The annihilation of Admiral Cervera's fleet, followed by the capit- 
ulation of Santiago, having brought to the Spanish Government a 
realizing sense of the hopelessness of continuing a struggle now be- 
come wholly unequal, it made overtiu^es of peace through the French 
ambassador, who with the assent of his Government had acted as the 
friendly representative of Spanish interests during the war. On the 
26th of July, M. Cambon presented a communication signed by the 
Duke of Almodovar, the Spanish Minister of State, inviting the 
United States to state the terms upon which it would be willing to 
make peace. On the 30th of July, by a commimication addressed to 
the Duke of Almodovar and handed to M. Cambon, the terms of this 
Government were announced, substantially as in the protocol after- 
ward signed. On the loth of August the Spanish reply, dated August 
7th, was handed by M. Cambon to the Secretary of State. It accepted 
imconditionally the terms imposed as to Cuba, Porto Rico, and an 
island of the Ladrones group, but appeared to seek to introduce inad- 
missible reservations in regard to our demand as to the Philippine 
Islands. Conceiving that discussion on this point could neither be 
practical nor profitable, I directed that in order to avoid misunder- 
standing the matter should be forthwith closed by proposing the 
embodiment in a formal protocol of the terms upon which the nego- 
tiations for peace were to be undertaken. The vague and inexplicit 
suggestions of the Spanish note could not be accepted, the only reply 
being to present as a verbal ultimatum a draft of protocol embodying 
the precise terms tendered to Spain in our note of July 30th, with 
added stipulations of detail as to the appointment of commissioners to 
arrange for the evacuation of the Spanish Antilles. On August 12th, 
M. Cambon announced his receipt of full powers to sign the protocol 
so submitted. Accordingly on the afternoon of August 12th, M. 
Cambon, as the plenipotentiary of Spain, and the Secretary of State, as 
the plenipotentiary of the United States, signed a protocol providing: 

Article I. Spain will relinquish all claim of sovereignty over and title to 
Cuba. 

Article II. Spain will cede to the United States the Island of Porto Rico 
and other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, and also 
an island in the Ladrones to be selected by the United States. 



William McKinley. 645 

Article III. The United States will occupy and hold the city, bay, and 
harbor of Manila pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace which shall 
determine the control, disposition, and government of the Philippines. 

The foitrth article provided for the appointment of joint commis- 
sions on the part of the United States and Spain, to meet in Havana 
and San Juan, respectively, for the purpose of arranging and carryins^ 
out the details of the stipulated evacuation of Cuba, Porto Rico, and 
other Spanish islands in the West Indies. 

The fifth article provided for the appointment of not more than five 
commissioners on each side, to meet at Paris not later than October 
ist, and to proceed to the negotiation and conclusion of a treaty of 
peace, subject to ratification according to the respective constitutional 
forms of the two countries. 

The sixth and last article provided that upon the signature of the 
protocol hostilities between the two countries should be suspended 
and that notice to that efTect should be given as soon as possible by 
each Government to the commanders of its military and naval forces. 

Immediately upon the conclusion of the protocol I issued a proc- 
lamation of August 1 2th suspending hostilities on the part of the 
United States. The necessary orders to that end were at once given 
by telegraph. The blockade of the ports of Cuba and San Juan de 
Porto Rico was in like manner raised. On the i8th of August the 
muster out of 100,000 volunteers, or as near that number as was 
found to be practicable, was ordered. 

On the 1st of December, 1898, 101,165 of^cers and men had been 
mustered out and discharged 'from the service and 9,002 more will be 
nuis'tered out by the loth of this month. Also a corresponding num- 
ber of general and general staff officers have been honorably dis- 
charged from the service. 

The military commissions to superintend the evacuation of Cuba, 
Porto Rico, and the adjacent islands were forthwith appointed: for 
Cuba, Major-General James F. Wade, Rear-Admiral William T. 
Sampson, Major-General Matthew C. Butler; for Porto Rico, Major- 
General John R. Brooke, Rear-Admiral Winfield S. Schley, Brigadier- 
General William W. Gordon, who soon afterward met the Spanish 
commissioners: ^^ Havana and San Juan, respectively. The Porto 
Rican joint commission speedily accomplished its task, and by the 
i8th of October the evacuation of the island was completed. The 
United States flag was raised over the island at noon on that day/ 



646 History of the United States. 

The administration of its affairs has been provisionally intrusted to a 
military governor until the Congress shall otherwise provide. The 
Cuban Joint Commission has not yet terminated its labors. Owing 
to the difficulties in the way of removing the large numbers of Spanish 
troops still in Cuba, the evacuation can not be completed before the 
1st of January next. 

Pursuant to the fifth article of the protocol, I appointed William 
R. Day, lately Secretary of State, Cushman K. Davis, William P. 
Frye, and George Gray, Senators of the United States, and Whitelaw 
Reid, to be the Peace Commissioners on the part of the United States. 
Proceeding in due season to Paris, they there met on the ist of Octo- 
ber five commissioners, similarly appointed on the part of Spain. 
Their negotiations have made hopeful progress, so that I trust soon 
to be able to lay a definite treaty of peace before the Senate, with a 
review of the steps leading to its signature. 

I do not discuss at this time the government or the future of the 
new possessions which will come to us as the result of the war with 
Spain. Such discussion will be appropriate after the treaty of peace 
shall be ratified. In the meantime and until the Congress has legis- 
lated otherwise it will be my duty to continue the military govern- 
ments which have existed since our occupation and give to the people 
security in life and property and encouragement under a just and 
beneficent rule. 

As soon as we are in possession of Cuba and nave pacified the 
island it will be necessary to give aid and direction to its people to 
form a government for themselves. This should be undertaken at the 
earliest moment consistent with safety and assured success. It is 
important that our relations with this people shall be of the most 
friendly character and our commercial relations close and reciprocal. 
It should be our duty to assist in every proper way to build up the 
waste places of the ispand, encourage the industry of the people, and 
assist them to form a government which shall be free and independent, 
thus realizing the best aspirations of the Cuban people. 

Spanish rule must be replaced by a just, benevolent, and numane 
government, created by the people of Cuba, capable of performing all 
international obligations and which shall encourage thrift, industry, 
and prosperity, and promote peace and good-will among all of the 
inhabitants, whatever may have been their relations in the past. 
Neither revenge nor passion should have a place in the new govern- 
ment. Until there is complete tranquillity in the Island and a stable 
government inaugurated military occupation will be continued. 



William McKixley. 647 

With the one exception of the rupture with Spain the intercourse 
of the United States with the great family of nations has been marked 
with cordiaHty, and the close of the eventful year finds most of the 
issues that necessarily arise in the complex relations of sovereign 
states adjusted or presenting no serious obstacle to a just and honor- 
able solution by amicable agreement. 



As a consequence (February 10, 1899) of the ratification of the 
treaty of peace between the United States and Spain, and its expected 
ratification by the Spanish Government, the United States will come 
into possession of the .Philippine Islands, on the farther shores of the 
Pacific. Tlie Hawaiian Islands and Guam becoming United States 
territory, and forming convenient stopping places on the way across 
the sea, the necessity for speedy cable communication between the 
United States and all these Pacific islands has become imperative. 
Such communication should be established in such a way as to be 
wholly under the control of the United States, whether in time of 
peace or of war. At present the Philippines can be reached only by 
cables which pass through many foreign countries, and the Hawaiian 
Islands and Guam can only be communicated with by steamers, in- 
volving delays in each instance of at least a week. The present con- 
dition should not be allowed to continue for a moment longer than is 
absolutely necessary. 

So long ago as 1885 reference was made in an Executive message to 
Congress to the necessity for cable communication between the United 
States and Hawaii. This necessity has greatly increased since then. 
The question has been discussed in the Fifty-second, Fifty-fourth, and 
Fifty-fifth Congresses, in each of which some efifort has been made 
looking toward laying a cable, at least as far as the Hawaiian Islands. 
The time has now arrived when a cable in the Pacific must extend at 
least as far as Manila, touching at the Hawaiian Islands and Guam on 
the way. Two methods of establishing this cable communication at 
once suggest themselves: First, construction and maintenance of 
such a cable by and at the expense of the United States Government ; 
and, second, construction and maintenance of such a cable by a private 
United States corporation, under such safeguards as Congress shall 
impose. 

I do not make any recommendations to Congress as to which of 
these methods would be the more desirable. A cable of the length of 



648 History of the United States, 

that proposed requires so much time for construction and laying that 
it is estimated that at least two years must elapse after giving the order 
for the cable before the entire system could be successfully laid and 
put in operation. Further deep-sea soundings must be taken west of 
the Hawaiian Islands before the final route for the cable can be 
selected. Under these circumstances it becomes a paramount neces- 
sity that measures should be taken before the close of the present 
Congress to provide such means as may seem most suitable for the 
establishment of a cable system. 



The Peace Proclamation. 

Whereas, A treaty of peace between the United States of America and Her 
Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, in the name of her august son, Don 
Alfonso XIII, was conchided and signed by their respective plenipotentiaries 
at Paris on the loth day of December, 1898, the original of which convention 
being in the English and Spanish languages; and. 

Whereas, The said convention has been duly ratified on both parts, and the 
ratifications of the two governments were exchanged in the city of Washing- 
ton, on the eleventh day of April, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine; 

Now, therefore, be it known that I, William McKinley, President of the 
United States of America, have caused the said convention to be made public, 
to the end that the same and every article and clause thereof may be observed 
and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the 
United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of April, in the year of 
our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine, and of the inde- 
pendence of the United States the one hundred and twenty-third. 

WILLIAM McKINLEY. 



LIFE OF WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

^ "\ /"ILLIAM McKINLEY was born at Niles, Ohio, January 29, 
1843. He was educated at the Poland Academy and 
Allegheny College. For some time after leaving college he 
taught in public schools. On the outbreak of the Civil War, he en- 
listed as a private at the age of 18 years in the Twenty-third Ohio 



vv 



I 



William McKinley. 649 

Volunteer Infantry, in 1861. In 1862 he was promoted to commissary 
sergeant and then second heutenant. The foUowing year his faith- 
fuhiess and bravery won him a first heutenancy. By another year he 
had risen to the rank of captain, and served on the stafTs of General 
Rutherford B. Hayes, General George Crook, and General Winfield S. 
Hancock. He was brevetted major of volunteers by President Lincoln 
for gallantry in battle, March 13, 1865. He was mustered out of 
service, July 26, 1865. He then took up the study of law in Mahoning 
county, and completed his course at the Albany Law School, New 
York, in 1867. He was admitted to the bar in the same year. He 
also settled at Canton, Ohio, in 1867, and began the practice of law. 
He has made Canton his home ever since. He married Miss Ida 
Saxton. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Stark county in 
1869. In 1876 he was elected as Congressman from his district. He 
continued to represent this district in Congress for fourteen years. 
As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, he reported the 
tarifif law of 1890. In that year he was defeated for re-election to 
Congress. But in the following year he was elected governor of Ohio, 
in 1891, by a plurality of 21,511. He was re-elected governor in 1893, 
by a plurality of 80,995. ^^ the Republican National Convention of 
1892, to which he was delegate, he supported the renomination of 
Benjamin Harrison. But he himself then received 182 votes for 
President, although he had refused to have his name considered. On 
June 18, 1896, at St. Louis, he was nominated for President, receiving 
661 out of a total of 905 votes. He was elected President at the fol- 
lowing November elections, receiving a popular plurality of 600,000 
votes, and 271 votes in the electoral college, against 176 for his 
opponent, William J. Bryan of Nebraska. 



PORTRAITS OF STATESMEN 
PROMINENT POLITICAL LEADERS 

AND 

WELL-KNOWN MEN OF THE DAY 




THOMAS C. PLATT 
OF NEW YORK 




JOHN KEAN 
OF NEW JERSEY 




MARCUS A. HANNA 
OF OHIO 




WILLIAM I. BRYAN 
OF NEBRASKA 




JOHN W. GRIGGS 
OF NEW JERSEY 




STEPHEN B. ELKINS 
OF WEST VIRGINIA 




JOSEPH R. HAWLEY 
OF CONNECTICUT 




GEORGE F. HOAR 
OF MASSACHUSETTS 




EDWARD MURPHY 
OF NEW YORK 




THOMAS H. CARTER 
OF MONTANA 




WILLIAM E. MASON 

OF ILLINOIS 




CHRISTOPHER N. MAGEE 
OF PENNSYLVANIA 




JOHN R. McLEAN 
OF OHIO 




CHARLES F. SPRAGUE 
OF MASSACHUSETTS 




WILLIAM J. SEWELL 
OF NEW JERSEY 



0.fo 






